LEARNING DAILY

 

Psalm 37:3-5, Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness, delight yourself also in the Lord. And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

 

“God is committed to caring for our needs.” That is a statement written by Max Lucado. Go back and read the verses above and you will see that the result is based on our trust, our delight and our commitment to Him. That does not mean we will always have a feast; it may mean we eat a sandwich. None of us have gone without much. The answer to why God does this could be found in Hebrews 13:20-21 where we are told that God gives us everything we need so we can do what He wants us to do and help us endure. The emphasis is on “need” not “want”.

 

To “delight ourselves in the Lord” is to desire and enjoy the nearness of His presence and the truth of His Word (from the notes in the LSSB); it is enjoying the salvation He offers and to walk on the narrow way to His kingdom and eternal life. Notice what the Psalmist said when we delight in the Lord – “He gives to them the desires of their hearts”. There is a condition that is understood from John 15:7 which states our desire must line up with God’s will. When walking with Him, delighting ourselves in Him and His will, He places His will within our hearts.

 

I have told you many times, that I pray for each of you to hunger and thirst for more of God’s righteousness and a desire to for each of you to place God’s kingdom before everything else. This past weekend I listened to a speaker speak on this verse. It seems to go right along with what I am writing about today. What do you hunger and thirst for? It is important that you answer the question because each of us choose what we will be filled with (one of his points). Your answer is important because what we dwell on determines where we will spend eternity. The speaker was absolutely correct when he said that wrong thoughts do not satisfy us; they only keep us hungry for more things, more stuff.

 

He said a statement that I thought was interesting. “You and I are as close to God right now as we want to be.” What are you choosing to fill yourself with at this moment? If you are choosing to fill yourself with more of worldly treasures you might be disappointed; that desire seems to never be satisfied. But if you hunger and thirst after God’s righteousness the rest of the verse states you will be filled.   I think that Matthew 5:6 is the most important verse in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. It supports the verses from the Psalms that are above. When we hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness (not our own), is the desire for God’s presence in our life, causes us to open the Bible to read and study it, and do everything we can to walk on the narrow way to His kingdom and eternal life.

 

But be aware that the desire for the things of God – trust, delight, and commitment in Him can be destroyed by worldly anxiety, deceitfulness of wealth, desire for things and life’s pleasures. The problem when our hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness is destroyed, a person dies spiritually.

Do not be discouraged! Instead make sure your hunger and thirst is for the right things. Be sure your trust is in the Lord and you are doing good and feeding on His faithfulness. Make sure you are delighting yourself in Him and committing your way to the Lord. It is the only way to be filled with His righteousness. Ultimately that is all that matters.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB.