RSDT Formula for Life

RSDT Formula for Life

We are familiar with some formulas and not so acquainted with others. Often people are advised to use the KISS formula when making a public presentation. “Keep it Simple, Stupid.” Or if the advice is coming from a spouse the formula often, but not always takes on a slightly different twist: “Keep it Simple, Sweetheart.” Are you familiar with Ezra’s RSDT formula? It proved to be extremely effective in his life and yes – it was endorsed by God.

Ezra was a priest but he was also an eminently qualified and respected scribe living in Babylon who specialized in the Law of Moses – or the Scriptures of that day. Even King Artaxerxes of Persia deeply respected Ezra.

Would you like your life to make a difference – or are you contented to just live a ho-hum, mediocre life and pass off the scene to be remembered for not much – very little of anything? You have two options:

1)     Live your life in harmony with God; or

2)     Be out-of-tune with God’s desire for your life.

I suspect Option 1 sounds much better to you. You really would like to make a positive difference with your life. But how? That’s where Ezra’s formula comes into focus. RSDT. Resolve. Seek. Do. Teach. And the exact order is important: RSDT. Here’s how the verse goes:

For Ezra had prepared his heart

to seek the law of the LORD,

and to do it,

and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

(Ezra 7:10)

The secret of living a God-honoring life starts deep within. It’s called: personal dealings with God. On your knees, alone with the Lord - perhaps with tears staining the pages of your Bible.  Or, it could be all alone in a large auditorium surrounded by many people.  But really, it’s just you and God. You are making that life-changing choice to seek His ways for the rest of your life.

It started with Ezra preparing his heart to put the Lord first in his life. This was a choice he made – a firm RESOLVE to get to know his God as much as was spiritually possible. It wasn’t a wishy-washy commitment. Nor was it a mere whimsical desire that it would be ‘cool to know my Bible really good.’ No, it was much deeper than that – so deep that it became his life. Anything else he may have been engaged in would be incidental to or instrumental in achieving the one unifying goal in his life – God.

He studied the Scriptures word by word, phrase by phrase SEEKING to grasp even the smallest details. Look at his desk. The documents were spread out. Carefully his eyes moved across the page as he studied each word and considered the context and the intent of every commandment of the Lord. He wasn’t doing it to accumulate knowledge or to flaunt his learnings in an effort to impress others. No! He was studying it in detail with a desire to obey it. He personally wanted to DO the law or the will of God.

Do you read your Bible the way Ezra read his? He proactively looked for any and every opportunity to obey the Lord in even the smallest details of life. “Lord, I am reading Your Word today. Please show me something else that I can change in my life in order to please Thee more.”  That’s the way Ezra studied his Bible.

Resolve. Seek. Do and then finally TEACHING. Better not to preach to others if your life contradicts what you are teaching. The credibility of Ezra’s teaching hinged on the fact that he himself practiced what he preached.

Before you press delete here’s a question: what formula is guiding your Christian life?

Warmly in Christ,

Peter Ramsay