Delightful!

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalms 37:4-5 KJV)

Daniel Coates, serving where fields are ready for harvest, is one of the missionaries our church helps support. Click on his picture or click here to reach his Facebook page.  He recently quoted:

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from effort, people do not gravitate towards godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessnes and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." D. A. Carson

Liberated does not mean that we ignore God’s law. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, but did not erase it. Paul knew this truth:

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31 KJV)

Paul wrote to Timothy about slaves, but it’s applicable to us all – obedience.

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-6 KJV)

That “teach otherwise” would be teaching disobedience to Christ’s words. Matthew Henry explains:

Observe, If the professors of religion misbehave themselves, the name of God and his doctrine are in danger of being blasphemed by those who seek occasion to speak evil of that worthy name by which we are called. And this is a good reason why we should all conduct ourselves well, that we may prevent the occasion which many seek, and will be very apt to lay hold of, to speak ill of religion for our sakes.

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He becomes the desire of our heart. Spending time with Him in prayer and studying His word will bring us closer to practicing virtue and staying away from sin - holiness.

I recently read articles saying that we need to stop thinking we’re sinning and accept diverse ways of life. For me, I think of David, who understood his sin (as we should understand ours) and asked for cleansing (as we should ask for ourselves):

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalms 51:2-4 KJV)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a delight filled life? Let’s set our goals to move toward holiness. Will you share yours?