Psalm 119:17-20 (NIV):
Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word.
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.
My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.
Only those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness will truly desire to obey God’s commands. Only those who long for His presence in their lives will truly seek to know His will, so that they can instantly and fully obey it. Too many these days seek God casually, as an add-on to their already full lives. When they accept Jesus as their “personal Savior,” there is no laying down their lives in favor of kingdom interests; no death to the many idols that steal their time and attention away from the one true God and His agenda. Yet those people still expect to experience all of the blessings that He has promised to His people. They still expect immediate and exact answers to their prayers. But they are double minded and double hearted (cf. James 1:7-8). They, like the Israelites of old, worship at God’s altar one day a week, and at the altars of other gods, other interests, for the rest of the week.
The true believer, the one God blesses, the one whose prayers He hears and answers, is the one who has laid down his or her life for Him. The one who is single-hearted. The one who loves Him and His commands with an all-consuming love. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 was one of those:
- · He had made up his mind that, whatever it took, he would study and learn and obey God’s commands. (Legalism, some would call it – God calls it love for Him and His word!)
- · He understood that only God can open a person’s eyes and heart to see all that is contained in His law, so he went to God asking for grace to truly see.
- · He fully realized that his exclusive focus on heavenly matters alienated him from most of the people here on earth; making him understand that heaven is his true home, and that he will never be entirely comfortable on earth ever again. He has thrown his all behind God, and so asks His help to live a kingdom life here and now.
- · Out of his love for God and his gratefulness for all He has done for him, he constantly desires to live a life of obedience; a life pleasing to God.
This is the life that God delights to bless; the life that is full of gratitude, and is consumed with living for Him. This is a picture of the true saint whose prayers God can, and will, answer. This is even a picture of the saints of the early Church, as they devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles; as they met together every day in the temple courts to praise God and to learn from Him. (Acts 2:42-47) These were not casual believers who shoe-horned “church” into already busy lives. When they received Jesus as the Savior, their whole lives changed! They had a new center, a new focus, and EVERYTHING in their lives was readjusted to fit around that center. (Anything that wouldn’t fit was eliminated!) And God blessed those sold-out, single-hearted disciples with blessing upon blessing, with abundant power, and with the fruit of new believers every single day.
Father, forgive us for being casual in our devotion to You. Forgive us for being double-hearted, for pursuing other interests with far more passion and fervor than that with which we pursue You. Forgive us trying to fit You into our already crowded lives instead of reorganizing our lives around You. You gave absolutely everything for us, and we give You a portion of our week in return. You love us 24/7, and we give You our spare time and leftover money in return. You give us Your very best, and we give You our weary leftovers! Forgive us, Lord, and give us the strength we need to seismically shift our lives to a new center in You. Amen.
Of all in earth and heaven, the dearest name to me
Is the matchless name of Jesus, the Christ of Calvary!
I cannot help but love Him, or tell His love to me,
For He became my ransom, the Christ of Calvary.
I could not live without Him, His love is life to me.
My blood-bought life I give Him, the Christ of Calvary.
The Christ of Calvary! the dearest name to me
Is the matchless name of Jesus, the Christ of Calvary.