Our Delight and Our Blessing 3/29/17

These last two months I have had the incredible privilege of living with my kids and grandchildren. Lots of work and lots of fun. Caring for my 8 month old grand daughter I have been reminded that when our children are young we just need to be giving them tons of love and protection. As they grow we do our best to instill truth and wisdom so that they will do well when they are not under our watch and care. But when they are adults there is one great umbrella of advice and a way to pray for them that will insure their success and our own.

Psalm 1:1-3 (AMP)

1

Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example],

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of [b]scoffers (ridiculers).

2 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night.

3 

And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season;

Its leaf does not wither

And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].

If we will find our delight in the word of God and make a habit of mediating on the word day and night we are promised to be blessed. Blessed translates the Hebrew word “esher,” which has the idea of happiness or contentment.

Blessed means supremely happy or fulfilled. Exactly what I want for my birth children and all my spiritual children and myself!

The first step towards this kind of happiness is to watch who we are taking counsel from. It is so easy to take counsel from a renown worldly source or a well-meaning advisor or even from ourselves. But it is the word of God we are first to look at for advice. Looking back on my life my greatest mistakes were from listening to other voices and not checking with the word to make sure I was on the right course….Our path may look odd to others and perhaps out of step with our culture but if it lines up with God’s counsel we do not need to be concerned and we will have peace. The righteous man knows how to judge Godly counsel: Godly counselors will always bring God’s truth and word to help someone.

Psalm 119:24

Your testimonies are also my delight and my counselors

The righteous man find his delight…in the law of the Lord. 

Man must have some delight, some supreme pleasure. His heart was never meant to be a vacuum. If not filled with the best things, it will be filled with the unworthy and disappointing.” (Spurgeon)

When I delight in something I do not need extra motivation to get to it.  It is something that refreshes me and keeps my interest so I look forward to it. I delight in taking care of my grandkids. I delight in time with my kids. I cherish all of our time together, each moment is special. That is the delight we are to have when we are in the word of God. Knowing His word brings life we should hunger after it as our own special delight because in reality it is our time of communicating with Him, just like my time with my precious children is my time to sharing with them.

And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night.

To meditate is to think deeply about what we read. To ponder it. Taking time to think about what it means and how to apply it. I also believe that as we ponder and think the Holy Spirit gives us insight as well. Now I realize that suddenly I have more time to do this than I did when I had a full time career. Watching my kids I understand how a 60 minute quiet time may be impossible. However technology today makes meditating on the word much easier during our busy seasons.  Castbox for audio downloads makes listening to teaching simple with a smartphone. Commuting can become an amazing time to store the word away. I have had podcasts on while watching the baby and am able to meditate on the word when I do just about everything around the house. I always have my earphones plugged in when I take the baby for a walk and it keeps us going longer!

If we and our children will keep the word near to us and are careful with those we choose for close companionship we are promised that we will not be uprooted by our circumstances. We and they will continually be fed and grow and produce fruit and nothing will uproot and cause us to topple over. Everything we do will prosper, that is the promise.

I pray everyday that everything my kids put their hands to will prosper. This passage reminded me to make sure I am praying first that we will all love the word of God and not put it on the back burner during their busiest seasons. The need to be disciplined to listen more intently to the word than the noise of our culture or news is paramount to our well being.

When we and our children dwell the secret place of God. Communing with Him through the word Psalm 91:1 promises this same outcome. “We shall remain stable and fixed, under the shadow of the Almighty”.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

When a tree is planted by a river there is a continual source of water, it always gets what it needs to become strong and put down deep roots and it simply will not wither. I love that the Psalmist tells us that we will bring forth fruit in season.

Seasons vary. Some seasons may be for rest or just drinking in nourishment. So often we can become discouraged if we are not in the fruit bearing season. If that is the case ask the Lord what season you are suppose to be in~and then enjoy it. If you are planted in the word the fruit will come!

And whatever he does shall prosper: For the life of the righteous man, God will bring something good and wonderful out of everything. Even tough circumstances bring forth something that shall prosper.