Delight yourself in the Lord
This morning I read Psalm 37. Here are some of the wonderful words: “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”
I was thinking about how do we delight ourselves in the Lord? How can I do that? Then I picked up a devotional book and on February 6 it says this: “Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. . . .You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents–burning, purification and separation for only one purpose–the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed by God.”
Wow! There was my answer. It isn’t the fun, easy way of delighting myself in God that I had first thought of. But it’s what God wants from me. A total sacrifice of myself to Him. What better way can we prove to God that we are truly delighting ourselves in Him. This is definitely a challenge to me today.
(By the way, the devotional book I quoted from is “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, updated edition.)
Thanks for the reminder of the wealth of knowledge contained in this one Psalm! I especially love verses 23-24. I have a talk I do called “Homeschooling On Solid Ground” that is based on this psalm!
I love Oswald Chambers! I have his book and a CD with wonderful music that goes with it. I’ve been reading your entries after you visited my blog…(thanks for doing the Top Ten!) you are right…we are VERY much alike! It is wonderful to find a like-minded soul….someone to walk the same path on the same journey. Thanks for some refreshing words….like cool water from a spring!
We also sign with our little ones until they begin to talk. We will start my little guy (6 mos.) on “official” signing in another month…but it has really already started. We do basic signing for the words we use most often: milk, more, food, mother, father, sister, all done (finished), all gone (can be different than ‘all done’), airplane, no, please, thank you, water and I’m sure many more. We have a couple of books on sign language (ASL, not SEE) that we use in case we want to learn a new word. We also have a CD program and there are also some great sites on the web!
LOVE finding new friends!
Blessings to you!
Melissa
(tulip)
How COOL. Another Gena! Oh boy, just what this site needs. LOL!!!