Thursday, September 7, 2023
Teach me your decrees, O Lord; I
will keep them to the end. Give
me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into
practice with all my heart. Make
me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is
found. Give me an eagerness
for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and
give me life through your word. Reassure
me of your promise, made to those who fear you. Help me abandon my shameful ways; for
your regulations are good. I
long to obey your commandments! Renew my
life with your goodness. Psalm 119:33-40
There are
moments that capture a parent’s heart, more than anything the world has to
offer. Fame, wealth, and anything else
in life, fades to background emptiness when your child reaches-out pudgy little
hands to be loved. Two of our three
children are in their 50’s now (and the last one is knocking on that door), yet
I still cannot look at them without remembering such times. They will always be the precious bundle
delivered to our home by a trusting Heavenly Father.
The Psalmist’s
prayer is like that of a child, holding out a hand to the parent. The prayer begins with: teach me your decrees (commandments,
what I should do), and ends with: renew
my life with your goodness.
These are like bookends, the details of what, how, when, and where are
in the middle. It all suggests rather
strongly that leaning your life’s energy on a commitment to God’s ways, in the
end leads to a life blessed with God’s best.
The prelude is my commitment to God’s way; the postlude, a life showered
with the blessing of God’s favor. It’s a
step of faith to place all your eggs in one basket, trusting a God you can’t
see. That is the point. Just as my children couldn’t possibly know
all the love I had in my heart for them, they still reached up their hands to
be led, taught, and loved.
It's an easy
thing to point to these words of the Psalmist and proclaim – THIS…this
is what you need to do with your life.
It’s a lot more difficult to explain that to a person raised in this
modern world of cautiousness, suspicion, and doubting. Our children are taught to not talk with
strangers, disbelieve every word that proceeds out of the mouths of
politicians, and to read the fine print to discover how they’re being lied-to. Many people are off-the-deep-end with
conspiracy theories. Truth be told,
there are enough valid reasons to be cautious:
Ponzi schemes, serial-killers, clergy sex-traffickers, dirty cops, and presidents
on trial. Overall there is a
preponderance of reasons not to trust.
And then someone comes along to say…trust God…he won’t let you
down. And the poor kid whose
head is spinning from the behavior he sees in adults says, sure…no
thanks!
It is no
wonder that in the realm of human beings searching for something or someone
trustworthy, so many humans grow up looking for more reasons to debunk God,
than trust Him. Many people consider
themselves spiritual, but give a quick thumbs-down on the
church. They’d rather trust in their own
idea of human existence, and the impersonality of scientific explanations, than
some antiquated religion. Now, that’s
the bad news. (Really, Russell? I’m glad that wasn’t the good stuff!) That makes two of us.
The Good News
is still what that antiquated religion proclaims…God is truth, God is love, God
loved all of us in Jesus Christ, and waits in the wings to forgive every
mistake, sin, or horrible thing you’ve ever done. Period!
I cannot give you 100 scientific proofs of it all, and even if I could,
there’s always a guy with an angle to cast doubt on it all (just ask Eve). But I can offer you the personal experience
of one who decided to take the leap of faith, trust the Heavenly Father I’ve
never seen, and find He’s trustworthy – above all!
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.
Title Images: Pixabay.com Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
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