Behave Yourself
Psalm 101:2
"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart."
Right behavior is no mistake. People who have the right behavior have it on purpose. You are not going to act right on accident, you are going to act right on purpose. It is when you don't do things on purpose that you end up doing the wrong things.
The Psalmist said in the verse above, "I will behave myself in a perfect way." You will notice that he decided he was going to behave himself, but he also purposed that he was going to have the right behavior. In other words, he had a plan on how he was going to behave right. In the next few verses you will find what he decided he was going to do to have the right behavior.
First, he decided he was not going to be in the place where wicked things would be shown. Verse 3 says, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:..." You will not behave right if you are watching the wrong things on television. You will not behave right if you are looking at the wrong websites. If you want to have proper behavior, then you must decide to never allow yourself to be in places that show the wrong things.
Second, he purposed to be around the right people. Verse 4 says, "...I will not know a wicked person." You will have a hard time behaving right if you are around people who don't behave right. You won't behave right by being with people who run to the bars and live in the party scene. You won't behave right when you sit in church with the people who are constantly doing wrong. You won't behave right by going to the restaurant with your work associates who live a wicked lifestyle. You must be around people who do right if you want to behave right.
Third, verse 5 shows us that you must have the right conversations if you want to behave right. You are not going to behave right when you are around the gossips. You are not going to behave right when your are around those who talk dirty. If you want to have the right behavior, then you must be around those whose conversations are glorifying to God.
Fourth, verse 6 shows us that you must serve the LORD to behave right. The best way to live right is to do right. When you are doing right, you won't be doing wrong. One of the greatest reasons you need to be involved in your church is to keep yourself from sin. You have a better chance of staying away from sin by serving the LORD.
Fifth, verse 7 shows that right behavior comes from having the right friends. This is somewhat akin to being around the right people, but it is stronger in that your friends are the whom you invite to your house. Your behavior is as good as your weakest friend. This is why it's important for you to be careful about your friends. Having good friends will help you to live right.
Last, verse 8 shows that dealing with your sin quickly will help you to behave right. Christian, you cannot allow sin to continue in your life and it not affect you. Sin is like cancer, if it is not dealt with immediately it will eventually control you. If you want to behave right, then you need to get rid of any sin in your life.
How you behave is a choice. It is a choice to do the things mentioned above. Your behavior will be determined by how well you implement each of these things in your life. If you find that your behavior is not what it should be, then it is because you are not doing one of the things mentioned above. On the other hand, if you want your behavior to continue to be right, then guard each of these areas so that you don't end up having the wrong behavior.