Thursday, June 23, 2011

Delight in the Lord! - June 23, 2011

Good Thursday morning! Well, we made it through the 22nd without another big storm. The pattern did not continue even though the evidence pointed to that conclusion. The pointers we see in this life are not always infinite pointers. We go one way for a season until God's purpose for that season is fulfilled and then the Lord points us in another direction. The season may be days, weeks, or years, but an end comes and sometimes we are surprised. You have probably heard the expression that where one door is closed, God opens another. We may have to search for the open door among many choices, but we rest in the fact that God is in control and will guide our footsteps.

Of course, we want big yellow road signs to point the way. Often we take out the Bible and search for that Book of Hasdooblas the very minor prophet, who had words directed specifically to me. "At the age of forty and eight, Bucky spent six months working on the vipplesnort book to the glory of God the Father, and it came to pass that riches and glory came his way as he obeyed the Lord. " (Hasd 1:12) Unfortunately, I haven't found that book in the Bible that directs me to specific actions each day. That council back in the day must have forgotten to include ol' Hasdooblas. Some days the Spirit is even silent about specifics. The command to "Write!" is a bit vague on goals and objectives and deadlines and such.

What should I be doing today? The Bible does give some guidance there. I read in a Psalm not too many days ago: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires." (37:4 NLT) What is this delight? It sounds like something that I should be doing today. And that heart's desires thing sounds really cool too! According to the dictionary from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia to delight is to incline toward or take pleasure in. We take pleasure in obeying the Lord and we take pleasure in knowing the Lord more each day. We take pleasure in trusting and loving our Lord. In other words, just like the Bible says, we delight in the Lord. So where are those heart's desires that I read about?

When we delight in the Lord without falling to the temptation to look around at the world and its stuff, our heart's desires will conform to the Lord's will for our life. In other words, I won't check for a pile of gold around my chair as a sign that I received my heart's desire. Rather, the Lord's will for my life will become my heart's desire and I will know what He would have me to do. The Lord might send you or I out to putter in the garden today. The Lord might have us do a thousand different things. We always want a divine to-do list to arrive on our desk, probably so we can immediately rebel against it, but the Lord's command is to delight in Him.

Have a wonderful day as you delight in the Lord!

Bucky

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