February 20, 2014

Delighting in the Lord...

Psalm 37:3-5 (36:3-5 LXX)

Hope in the Lord, and work goodness;
Dwell in the land, and you shall be nurtured by its riches.
Delight in the Lord,
And He will give you the requests of your heart.
Reveal your way to the Lord,
And hope in Him; and He will do it.

Commands with Promises...

This passage gives us various commands of what we should do, or how we should live, and what the results will be. But before we apply some formula to God and expect Him to respond to us because we act a certain way, or do certain things, or speak the perfect prayer, we must understand how His promises work. We are called, above all, to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and spirit. If we truly do this we begin on the path of humility and submission to Him and His will. As we grow in this humility and love for Him our hopes, our good works, our dwelling in the land, our delighting in Him, our ways that we reveal to Him will all shift to be more in alignment with Him and His will. Then the nurture that we will receive, the requests of our heart that He gives us, and the things He will do in our lives will be so much more different and fulfilling than if we seek our own desires.