On Monday, Britta wrote that we can encounter freedom from the Curse when we hear and do God’s Word. She emphasized that freedom is a Joy-maker.
I am basking in the light of the Summer of Joy!
The scripture verses are perfectly plucked to highlight the theme of joy. Speaking of plucked, the flowers I plucked out of the grocery store tub for myself (it’s 110 degrees in the high desert; can’t pluck too many beauties out of our dirt) were perfect, purple GLADiolus. I just knew they would be joy/glad-makers for me. Being stately flowers they command attention by their stiff, thick stalks and numerous sword-shaped flowers growing in community with one another up and down one side of each stalk. A delightful sight to behold.
Scripture from Summer of Joy this week includes Psalm 119:16, “I will delight myself in Your statutes, I will not forget Your Word.” The word “delight” stems from the Latin word “delectare” meaning “to please”.
My initial reflection on this scripture is an unfaded memory of a difficult day in my child-rearing journey. As I described my challenges to a wise friend, she inquired as to whether or not I was ready to consider a more meaningful, heart-altering request of the Lord in prayer than the momentary feeling of desired rescue, “Lord, help me to tolerate, handle, get through these days.”
She recommended that I pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to delight in/be fond of my children. The Lord honored this prayer making parenting an ongoing joymaker because it coincided with His statute to love others.
Once I delight in following His commands,
I will not forget them.
When I finally submit, He does the loving through me. Once again, a picture of the sacrifice of self, producing pure, Christ-filled JOY!
“Worldly men that are intent upon carnal interests, forget the Word, because it is not their delight. Instruction we take in with sweetness, sticks with us and runs in our minds night and day. Delight prevents forgetfulness.“ – Thomas Manton
We are to be pleased with His commands because we trust He knows what is best for us. When we genuinely delight in His Truth, we aren’t using our own measuring stick, which provokes misery. We obey by looking up, not around us. “‘¦But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12)
“Where one man reads the Bible,
a hundred read you and me.”
– Dwight Moody
I feel the weight of this sometimes: How will they read joy in us?
Tell me what's on your heart: