e-votional
a message to encourage and uplift from College Heights Baptist Church
Thursday May 28, 2009
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1 How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers! 2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. – Psalms 1:1-2 (HCSB)
Every parent can identify with the concern for their children to be around the right crowd. Kids (and parents too) are often easily influenced. We tend to do what others do, say what others say. It’s one thing to avoid bad influences. It’s quite another to find positive ones. That’s why the psalmist not only steers us away from the wrong influences, but he points us in the right direction. He tells us that happiness is not found in the advice of the wicked, the path of the sinners, or with a group of mockers. Rather, it is found in a sincere desire to learn and obey God’s Word.
This ancient song-writer tells us that we need to approach God’s instructions with a sense of delight. The word delight means simply to take pleasure in something. We are to approach the Scripture with a sense of pleasure. We come to God’s Word with a sincere joy. A truly blessed person relishes the Scripture. She enjoys the instruction of God. She does not see God’s Word as burdensome. Too many look at the Bible with a sense of drudgery. We too often see it as an anchor that holds us back. Rather, the Scripture is God’s revelation of Himself to us. In it, He gives us the words of life and peace, hope and joy. We should rejoice when we encounter God in its pages. Even in passages that are difficult and challenging, we take joy in the fact that God cares enough for us to communicate His desires to us.
Furthermore, we need to meditate on God’s Word. To meditate means to spend some time reading and reflecting on it. It’s absolutely tragic that professing Christians do not spend time reading their Bibles. We don’t read them. We don’t carry them. We don’t live them. Most of the time, we don’t even know where they are. I was recently at a worship service where something remarkable happened when the speaker referenced a passage of Scripture. In the silence between the pauses, you could actually hear pages turning as people sought to read along. There was a hunger for the Word. It’s remarkable that we know song lyrics, batting averages, and reality t.v. show happenings by heart, but we have no idea what the Sovereign Lord of the universe says to us. In some places around the world, Christians huddle together with a single page of Scripture or a simple gospel of John, and they devour it like a starving man gulps down food. Yet, we sit in our biblical abundance and are spiritually malnourished. There is simply no excuse for it. And the sad part is that our lives and our churches reflect our emptiness.
We need to begin to live lives that bear the imprint of Scripture. May we meditate on it day and night. May we take pleasure in God’s revelation of Himself to us. May we allow Him to influence us that we might be able to begin to influence those around us.
Pastor
