Recently I’m hearing a lot of talk about how and what it looks like to live pleasing to God. In this quest, we often long to understand God’s will, or His plan for our life. Even those with years of faith-filled living, at times find themselves asking, “What does God want me to be doing?”
Psalm 37 gives three simple directives, which when applied to daily living can help us find the answers we seek.
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. (Psalm 37:3-5 NKJV)
TRUST. In any relationship, bonds of trust are built through time together, and much conversation. Why do we think the same wouldn’t apply to God?
DELIGHT. When we delight in God, His delight becomes reciprocal. The Hebrew word for delight (anag) is a reflexive verb, meaning the action falls back onto the subject. This is why “yourself” is included after the word “delight.”
God delights in us spending time with Him. And when His presence becomes the joy of our hearts, our very nature undergoes transformation—becoming more like Him—and in the process He gives, or puts desires on our hearts.
COMMIT. To commit means to “roll.” I commit, or roll my way off of myself, away from myself, and onto Him. In doing so, the progression of trusting, delighting and committing goes full circle: by committing my life to Him, I again display trust and delight, and in the process, He brings to pass those desires on my heart.
God takes care of our plans, our future, our dreams and aspirations as we TRUST Him, DELIGHT in Him, and COMMIT ourselves to Him.
The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand. Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread. (Psalm 37:23-25 NLT)
As we seek His presence and live close to Him, our lives will be blessed and guided by His plans and purposes. The Lord aims to transform us into His likeness through a life of faith—trusting, delighting, and committing ourselves to Him.
Copyright © 2018 Cheryl Elton
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