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.

 

You can pick out the key words in the verses above; trust, dwell, feed on, delight in and commit are important, necessary, actions each of us must live when we walk on the narrow way to eternal life in God’s kingdom. I have read things by people who write encouraging devotionals like, “Your beliefs shape your experience. Believe that you can reach your goal.” (Tony Dungy). If I believe what the Psalmist wrote in the Psalm 37, I will live like God will bring to pass everything He has said He would do.

 

 The fact of the matter is, as I try to live these verses, I have seen God give me the desires of my heart – at least those that have brought Him honor and glory. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I have had plenty of wrong desires of the heart. They were desires that brought me front and center and I fully trusted God to bring them to pass. I am so thankful He didn’t! Can anyone relate to this?

 

To delight yourself in the Lord is to desire and earnestly seek to be in His presence. That would include spending the time in His Word, allowing it to speak to your heart. It would include prayer and meditating on His Word and His magnificence. It would include walking in truth and not in the deception of worldliness. His Word plainly says when we delight ourselves in Him, He gives us the desires of our heart. Be careful here and do not take this out of context. When we delight ourselves in Him, we begin to desire what He desires. We begin to desire the things that line up with His will. It is important to know that when we spend time with Him, He puts His desires in our hearts that He then begins to fulfill.

 

Trust in Him grows as He shows Himself faithful. That might come through reading about God’s faithfulness to do what He promises in His Word, biographies and autobiographies of how He used people, and just personal experience.  When we see how He has used others or remember the time he has used us, it is like feeding on His faithfulness. We can be encouraged to be used for His kingdom. Trust means to have confidence that God will do what He promised and gives the encouragement to act on our faith in Him.

 

When we act on our faith, know He is leading us to do so, we are leaning on Him and not trusting ourselves. Isn’t that the desire and plan of God for each Believer? He has a plan for each of our lives. He wants us to trust Him for it, believe His Word, and have faith in Him – even when we do not understand! Our faith comes into our walk on the narrow way as we live the life (dwell in the land) and feed on God’s Word. Just a reminder that Jesus said He was the bread of life. He is the Good Shepherd who feeds His sheep and guides them through all the valleys of life. You and I must be committed to following Him!