justice, like the noonday
I'm reading Ken Sande's book "The Peacemaker" and really liking it. One of the points he makes is that at the beginning of conflict, at the loss of our peace, there is a desire born in our hearts that becomes more important to us than anything else. A desire that could lead us to anger, bitterness, control, and manipulation if we can't have it.
In psalm 37, David writes:
Delight yourself in the LORD
and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (vs. 4)
Do we know what it means to delight ourselves in the Lord? We are taught, and I believe, to find satisfaction in God alone. But show me the person who lives completely in that place on their time on earth.
The human heart can be a tricky, deceitful thing.
The heart is deceitful above all things
And desperately wicked:
Who can know it?
I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind.
Jeremiah 17 (vs. 9, 10a)
Even in our heart's deceit and in the people or situations we make more important than they should be in our lives, the Lord is there with us, searching our heart. He remains a constant. In our searching, our craving to find satisfaction, He is aware of our trying. He created us with that longing. And he's looking around the earth to see who has a heart that's trying to find Him. Even those hearts that tend to wander.
That gives me a lot of peace. Because I have a wandering heart. But I love Jesus most.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your
righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
- psalm 37, vs. 5,6
There are some wants and desires I'm continually giving to Jesus. I'm trusting him to take care of them, and that way I can concentrate on doing what I was put on this earth to do. Doesn't it give you peace to know that as we trust Jesus to intercede for us, to plead our case and to work justice on our behalf, he will cause us to live in glory? To direct glory to Himself?
There is no safer place to be than to commit your way to the Lord. In that place you can't hold on to much. You can't strive and plot and hurt and let your deceitful heart reign.
I love Jesus most. He knows my heart. I am free in Him to be the voice He has made me to be, with the exact heart and mind he has given me. No one else can speak what He's told me to say. No one else can love him the exact way I do. That is how I delight myself in the Lord.
One thing he has impressed most on me these past months, is that he cares so much about relationship and character. The people we see in his Word that he spent a lot of time with, were all about relationship and character. He cares about relationship with him, and with each other. He cares about our character - not how good we are, but how much we desire to be like him, to fight against our sin nature.
So I'm also going to fight. And I'm going to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently in Him, as David writes in psalm 37. I'm putting my hope in him. I have a lot to gain if I can do that.
In psalm 37, David writes:
Delight yourself in the LORD
and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (vs. 4)
Do we know what it means to delight ourselves in the Lord? We are taught, and I believe, to find satisfaction in God alone. But show me the person who lives completely in that place on their time on earth.
The human heart can be a tricky, deceitful thing.
The heart is deceitful above all things
And desperately wicked:
Who can know it?
I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind.
Jeremiah 17 (vs. 9, 10a)
Even in our heart's deceit and in the people or situations we make more important than they should be in our lives, the Lord is there with us, searching our heart. He remains a constant. In our searching, our craving to find satisfaction, He is aware of our trying. He created us with that longing. And he's looking around the earth to see who has a heart that's trying to find Him. Even those hearts that tend to wander.
That gives me a lot of peace. Because I have a wandering heart. But I love Jesus most.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your
righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
- psalm 37, vs. 5,6
There are some wants and desires I'm continually giving to Jesus. I'm trusting him to take care of them, and that way I can concentrate on doing what I was put on this earth to do. Doesn't it give you peace to know that as we trust Jesus to intercede for us, to plead our case and to work justice on our behalf, he will cause us to live in glory? To direct glory to Himself?
There is no safer place to be than to commit your way to the Lord. In that place you can't hold on to much. You can't strive and plot and hurt and let your deceitful heart reign.
I love Jesus most. He knows my heart. I am free in Him to be the voice He has made me to be, with the exact heart and mind he has given me. No one else can speak what He's told me to say. No one else can love him the exact way I do. That is how I delight myself in the Lord.
One thing he has impressed most on me these past months, is that he cares so much about relationship and character. The people we see in his Word that he spent a lot of time with, were all about relationship and character. He cares about relationship with him, and with each other. He cares about our character - not how good we are, but how much we desire to be like him, to fight against our sin nature.
So I'm also going to fight. And I'm going to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently in Him, as David writes in psalm 37. I'm putting my hope in him. I have a lot to gain if I can do that.