Love & delight

Psalm 119: 46-48

"I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees."

* statutes- a record of God's stated will and give guidance and instruction. The word sometimes refers to the Ten Commandments.

* commands- words from God with a special focus on God's authority.

* decrees- a synonym for law, but with an emphasis on civil and ritual ordinances.

I was reading through Psalm 119 this morning, and had to stop when I came to these verses. It caught me off guard a little bit that the psalmist said he delights in God's commands....he loves them.

I thought to myself, why in the world would you DELIGHT or LOVE commands? Isn't that what we're always trying to avoid?

So I asked myself, "Self, do you love God's commands?"

I had to respond with a big fat negative. There are so many things that I'm commanded to do from God's Word that I would dare to say I hate even.

For example:

- "Carry each other's burdens" - Gal 6:2

- "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths..." - Eph 4:29

- "Always giving thanks to God the father for everything..." - Eph 5:20

- "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord" - Eph 5:22

- "Do nothing out of selfish ambition" - Phil 2:3

- "Do not be anxious about anything..." - Phil 4:6

- "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business..." - 1 Thess 4:11

**Whew, that last one certainly goes against Facebook any other social networking site doesn't it!?!?**

I'll stop there. I found these verse simply by flipping through my Bible and scanning some of the underlined scriptures. As I typed each of these out, I began thinking that I often come up with some pretty lame excuses about why I don't do these things.

But forget about doing them....I'm just trying to learn to love and delight in them today.

I have a feeling that if I began loving God's commands, and lifting up my hands to them as the psalmist writes, then I'll be much more likely to follow through in living them out.

Will you join me in changing our hearts and attitudes towards the commands given to us in scripture?

Let's delight in them, and love them....lifting up our hands to them out of our love.