God is steadfast.

 Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

Psalm 144:1-4 (ESV)
 
Our lives are like a breath. They are vital for the moment, then totally gone the next, and before you know it, without a trace.
 
Those who live with this reality in mind realize that they are going to be dead a whole lot longer than they are alive, and they make decisions based on this stark reality. Those who decide solely to satisfy their momentary pleasures are gravely disappointed.
 
God is steadfast. He is a fortress, a stronghold. We are not. I would be a sagacious man to align my thoughts, ways, and purposes with His. He alone can and will bring meaning and stability to life.

God is my refuge and strength!

 With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."

Psalm 142:1-5 (ESV)
 
The Godless will always be unreliable, for they have no one but themselves to whom to answer. People's spirits can faint, friends fail, and family fall apart, but God remains reliable.
 
What I believe has changed and will change through the years, but God will never change. I am in a constant discovery mode with Him, and I need to approach Him each day with the idea of discovery in mind.
 
God is my refuge and strength. Without Him, I cannot succeed.

Quiet Confidence

 O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.

Psalm 141:1-5 (ESV)
 
A desire to listen to God comes from understanding that listening to man without God is futile.
 
In quietness and confidence comes our strength, not in rhetoric or argument. Man needs to learn to be quiet and value those around them who will "strike" them when they begin to falter to keep them from evil.
 
"For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ But you were unwilling…." Isaiah 30:15
 

The Danger of Deception

 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV)
 
I cannot honestly search my heart, for I am often more prone to deception than honesty. God alone is truth and is always honest, regardless of shenanigans. If I am to live in the truth, I need to position myself to hear God, and if I listen to Him, I need to be ready and willing to change how and what I am thinking according to what He reveals to me.
 
I would not want to lie to another person intentionally; if I did, I would be overcome with guilt. However, I have learned to lie to myself quite well, often without remorse. This makes my self-talk most dangerous because a lie repeatedly heard becomes one's "truth."
 
Being deceived is most dangerous because we do not know we are being deceived; therefore, we have no way out unless there is some intervention.

Foolishness

 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

Psalm 139:13-18 (ESV)
 
To deny God's role in the creation of any living thing is foolishness, and therefore, those who believe such nonsense are fools. It only takes casual observation to conclude that there must be a God. Since science is based on observation, it should lead us to God instead of driving us away from Him.
 

History…Adjusted!

 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Psalm 139:1-7 (ESV)

The tension between God's sovereignty and my choice is evident. God knows everything I will say and do before I ever say and do it, and I have a real option to say and do what I will, if He allows it.

The real issue is that God knows what is to come and has adjusted history to ensure that He wins in the end. For me, a mere man, it is difficult to comprehend what it must be like to know the future and to have already adjusted the events of history.
 

We were not meant to make our own gods.

 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.

Psalm 135:15-18 (ESV)
 
The worthless trust in worthless things. As politically incorrect as it may be, the Bible makes it clear that those who do not live life as intended have wasted their lives, or live worthless lives. The children of Israel, who decided to follow their fears and not enter the promised land, ended up wandering in circles for 40 years. They lived a meaningless existence, and they died in a meaningless place.
 
Today, the objects of our worship have changed, but the problem remains the same. Giving control to anything other than God will cause a loss of purpose that will be impossible to regain without repentance.
 
We were not meant to make our own gods; we were meant to love the only God. Any other arrangement is futile.