Delight. Joy. Yes, please!! If you find yourself wondering why these seem to always allude you, this is the verse for you! Check this out!
“Delight yourself in God.” Spend time with Him. Get into His Word and spend enough time reading and thinking about what you’ve read that His Word gets into you. Sit quietly and listen to what the Spirit wants to teach you.
“Find your joy in Him at all times.” At ALL times (even when your circumstances are less than stellar). This phrase becomes really hard if we have neglected the “delight yourself in God” part. In and of myself, I am a miserable person, able to find fault in just about anything, but when you have spent time with the Love of your life, it changes your perspective.
“Have a reputation for gentleness…” Webster defines gentleness as having mildness in manner and disposition. “Manner” to me lends itself to the outward behavior of a person. “Disposition” makes me thing of an attitude, something going on beneath the surface. Without spending time with the Lord, gentleness is out of the question for me. This ole flesh is cranky…haha.
Ok, so far we’ve looked at “Delight yourselves in God, yes, find your joy in him at all times. Have a reputation for gentleness…” Check out the next phrase.
“…and never forget the nearness of your Lord.” Never forget……..I don’t know about you but remembering doesn’t come easy. It takes a real effort for me to remember something. I have to write it down. I have to say it to myself over and over. I have to place something in a prominent place so I remember to take it with me. It’s hard to not forget something.
Never forget “the nearness of my Lord“. To me, that phrase swings two ways…
- Never forget that God is ever near you in the midst of whatever you’re going through. He’s there to help you, to strengthen you, to uphold you when the going gets tough.
- God is ever near you and He sees not only your actions and reactions to your circumstances, but He also sees what others do not. God sees into your heart and mind…what is going on within while life is challenging the crud out of you. Now THAT makes my blood run cold, because I don’t always think the most pleasant of thoughts about things. Haha
Yup, one verse stopped me dead in my tracks this morning. God had a lot to say, and now I have a lot of remembering and putting into practice to do.