Light Delights Us

Chuckle: An executive was interviewing a nervous young woman for a position in his company. He wanted to find out something about her personality so he asked, "If you could have a conversation with someone living or dead, who would it be?" The young woman quickly responded, "The living one."

Quote: "Worry doesn't help tomorrow's troubles, but it does ruin today's happiness." –Unknown source

THE LIGHT OF GOD'S WORD DELIGHTS US:

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105 NIV). Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy (delight) of my heart" (Psalm 119-111 NIV).

The Light gives us abundant joy (vs.. 111). Obviously, a heritage is something handed down to us by our ancestors -- our inheritance. There is no other heritage that even comes close to being as priceless as the heritage of God's Word left to us -- the Bible. The Bible, however, is like some other inheritances people receive -- it yields its treasures only under certain conditions. God's Word is priceless but it will not yield its wealth to us without hard work. When we work at it by diligent study, the Bible never fails to yield its riches. The heart which is inclined to obedience has tapped into the limitless resources of God's Word which brings lasting and complete joy.

The Light causes us to look to the future. "I am determined to keep your principles, even forever, to the very end" (Psalm 119:112 NIV). Those who work, or have worked, with horses know that a tired horse will move faster and pull harder when it is heading for the barn -- when the end of a day's work is in sight. Some people may find living their lives in accordance with God's Word to be uphill, tiring work, but not the psalmist. He was heading home. He had turned his heart in that direction.

If we reflect on all that God has done for us, the feeling within us that we are heading home will continue to grow and give us even greater motivation to work more diligently for our Lord. No doubt the psalmist found that keeping God's precepts gave him momentum, so that when difficult situations came they were already more than half conquered. He never lost sight of the end of the journey. He looked to the future with anticipation and confidence.

"Consider the difference between a strong and a weak cup of tea. The same ingredients -- water and tea -- are used for both. The difference is that the strong cup of tea results from the tea leaves immersion in the water longer, allowing the water more time to get into the tea and the tea into the water. The longer the steeping process, the stronger the cup of tea. In the same way, the length of time we spend in God's Word determines how deeply we get into it and it gets into us. Just like the tea, the longer we are in the Word, the "stronger" we become."  --Unknown Source

Love, Jerry & Dotse