The 1956 Johnny Cash song “I Walk the Line”: goes, "/I keep a close watch on this heart of mine /keep my eyes wide open all the time /keep the ends out for the tie that binds /Because you’re mine, I walk the line.
In the Cash song the expression “to walk the line” means to be faithful. That’s how he explained it in a Feb. 26, 2010, interview with NPR: “It was kind of a prodding to myself to play it straight, Johnny.” https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/02/line.html
Those of the prison life try to wear the ways of this world and at the same time garments of salvation. Which is it? God or the world? Because if they try to walk the line they end up in miserable worthless shameful compromise. The days are growing darker. To find the wisdom needed to make a choice not filled with selfish sin one must ask God in desperate plea. He has made His wisdom pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to understand. It is full of mercy and good fruits without prejudice or hypocrisy. But make your choice quick for the light that is available to you may be put out. For the Son is coming quickly for His own.
He has placed you in a time of great disappointment of wounded pride and the brokenness of your heart. But in this your eyes will be opened to the truth of His word and the ways of His wisdom. It may take some time, even a lifetime to grasp what He desires so desperately for you to know.
How can the chaplains or officers know if you are His and He desires to teach you? You will know when your life is filled with hedges of testing and trails. Without them you can be assured you are not His. When life hurts you, when people harm you, when the world hinders you, look for His tender hand of wisdom. Find the lesson on the moment. For He only chastens those He has chosen. The others are lost given unto their own wisdom and devices.
The bible is the powerful tool of the incarcerated. Pick up His eternal Word and spend the night with Him speaking to you. You will discover new things, now veiled, only opened by testing of faith. Shall we act like the world when tried—no faith, no light, no understanding or hope? Shall we sink in the whirlwind of doubt and despair? Be thankful for His tender hand of warm and divine guidance.
Ask Him to keep you in search of Him, in love with Him, in service to Him during all impossibilities and improbabilities.
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