“I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways.”
Psalm 119:15 NLT
I’ve always struggled with arithmetic. At primary school I found it virtually impossible to commit my times tables to memory. I still struggle with mental maths and am grateful for a calculator on my phone. I have played cards with friends who have the capacity to know every card played and can add long strings of numbers together in a flash. This is like having something within that’s always readily available for use without a second thought.
Here the psalmist commends having God’s word established in one’s heart so that it is second nature to do what God desires. This sounds wonderful, but it is a struggle. My approach is to deliberate before deciding upon any course of action. I do not immediately respond to God’s word. There are cautionary notes I want to sound and if God’s way appears unreasonable, I don’t want to commit to it.
Yet, many of God’s commands can seem unreasonable. For example, loving my enemy sounds like it might well place me in a precarious position. And forgiving 70 times seven times suggests I make myself a laughing stock and a doormat combined. So life becomes a process through which I determine the degree to which I affirm God’s commands. There are some I like, others that I might warm to and still others that make me feel queasy. As God reveals his ways are not our ways, I do appreciate that to walk God’s ways I must seek to follow God’s commands, regardless of my ability to rationalise them. There are commands that I must simply obey and trust.
For all of us there are areas of our lives that to entrust to God requires great courage. Life always has a way of leaving its mark on each of us, but God is perfect and so we can entrust ourselves to God’s love without fear. However, we still need to address that fear before we can trust God. Much of life is facing our fears and insecurities so that we might become complete in Christ.
QUESTION
What experiences in life have made you more cautious? How has this impacted the way you live your life?
PRAYER
Loving Father, give me the courage to choose the way of obedience and of love.
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