For 2011 I have chosen to meditate and wrap my life around 2 verses from scripture. The first is Romans 15;13 "I pray that God, the source of hope will fill you completely with joy and peace BECAUSE you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." (more on that verse in another blog) but the other verse is;
Psalm 37:4-5. "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your hearts desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord, trust in Him and HE will do it."
One of the last things I am about is one of those wealth and prosperity Christians, there is absolutely no logic or correct line of thinking here. Try preaching it in India or Haiti or any 3rd world country. Honestly the poor do not have the lure and distractions of money, they just need to survive everyday, but they have a joy from God that no amount of money could ever give. Enough of that....here is what I am learning and applying each day this year regarding Psalm 37:4-5. First, delighting in God without asking Him anything for myself is not as easy as you might think, well not for me anyway. I find in my prayer life that so much of it was in asking God for answers for myself and others. Yes, I am commanded to bring my requests before God with faith and with His will in mind. I am also commanded to pray without ceasing as well as many other commands, but delighting in Him has been so good for my soul!!! The fact that He knows what my heart desires are all ready makes it redundant to ask what He knows anyway, my part is to delight in Him, totally commit my life to Him and His part is to grant me the desires of my heart that are in line with His perfect will! How cool!!! So this is how a new prayer for me might sound like;
"Father, I delight in my future, that You hold the keys, that You are the author and perfecter of my faith and I delight that no good thing do you withhold from those who truly love you. I delight that you are the giver of all good things, I delight that your protection for me is secure as You go before me, come behind me and send Your angels to camp over me! I delight that you actually care so intimately about me that when one more of my hairs falls out (and more have fallen out then grown back in) you know it! Thank you God for knowing my every step and day and nothing takes you by surprise. In Jesus matchless name, Amen!"
How I might have prayed this prayer could have sounded like this; "Father God, I need your help desperately, I need a better paying job. I need to provide better for those I love, and I feel so in-adequate in not doing so. Please God, please, I ask that you jump in and help me quickly, I am in dire straits here and you know it. Thank you and bless you God, in Jesus matchless name - Amen!
Do you see the difference? I am a Dad and I am so glad when my adult children communicate something to me about me that they love about me. I disliked it when the only thing I was good for was when they just asked for things only I could provide, I did love providing it, but not wanting it to define my parental existence. So it is true of my relationship with my Heavenly Father, He has the resources to provide everything I need, and He could give me everything I want, (that would not be good of course). But the best thing I can do is delight in Him.
How do we delight in God? Well, that's for the next blog! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you delight in God on a regular basis!
