God's Glory, Your Glory

Isaiah 60:1-3 NKJV
Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

Isaiah 60:19-22 NKJV
“The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you;
But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light,
And your God your glory.
Your sun shall no longer go down,
Nor shall your moon withdraw itself;
For the Lord will be your everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning shall be ended.
Also your people shall all be righteous;
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified.
A little one shall become a thousand,
And a small one a strong nation.
I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.”

Psalm 115:1 NKJV
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth.

Stop Digging Holes

Psalm 7:15 NIV
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.

I think the above passage is referring to sin and how it engulfs us if left unattended. First, it talks about initially digging a hole, it’s an active attempt at committing a sin. It seems innocent at first, similar to a child digging a hole in the ground, just playing. Then it progresses to scooping it out ever deeper and wider. We are not satisfied with just digging a hole and then filling it back in. Like sin, we’re not satisfied with the temptation, recognizing it as such, and letting it be cast off, with the pursuit or intention to grow closer to God. Sin grows if not tamed at the crossroad of temptation. We often want to see how far we can take sin while all the while it often takes us into places we do not wish to go. There is an ongoing false sense that we are in control when we engage sin and allow it to fester. We say to ourselves, “I’m in control, I can shut it down anytime I want to, it doesn’t have a hold on me.” If we aren’t saying these things we are at least thinking in this manner. Sin will eventually take over.
God may and can turn us eventually over to a reprobate mind as it states in the bible. We will as a natural and logical consequence “fall into the pit” of sin and destruction. If it does not occur in this world it certainly will occur on the day of judgement for God will judge us accordingly.
This verse ends with “he has made”. In other words, we can’t blame anyone, anything else other than ourselves. We create and maintain a lot of our sin in our lives. This does not take Satan out of the equation but if we are born again, washed in the blood of the Lamb, sanctified and set apart, then we have no excuse to enter into or at least manifest/nurture sin in our lives. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
The solution-try not to dig a hole in the first place, arrest temptation, admit it and immediately turn it over to God. This is not easy since we are bombarded by temptation without limit. We must saturate our mind with the Word of God, recognize patterns or signs/signals or habits that lead up to sin and flee from an oncoming sin. If we fall into sin we must stop “scooping it out”. In other words, we must stop ourselves from getting deeper into it. Claim victory over it through the cross, releasing it to the Father who fights our battles for us. This won’t happen if we continue to think falsely that we can handle our sin on our own. We can’t and we deceive ourselves and ridicule the grace that God has already given us.
And finally, if we have allowed sin to take over and consume us, we must immediately go to God, humble ourselves and ask for His forgiveness. We must allow Him to be who He says He is and allow Him to do what He says He can do. God will forgive us because  He loves us and states in His Word that He will “restore us unto Himself”. God understands our weaknesses and Jesus was like us in everything; tempted in every way but never sinned. He understands and has provided the victory. He went to the cross so that we would not have to fall and remain in our own “pit”. - JSS

Our Royal Priesthood

1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Numbers 18:7 NIV
I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.

Numbers 18:7 NKJV
I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.

We must consider our “priesthood” over our family/community as a gift from God.
I like the NKJV version because it emphasizes the the gift is given for service. It is bestowed by God to be acted upon, to be exercised (and this must be done in God’s strength, not our own). - JSS