Thursday, February 27, 2014

Older & Wiser

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~Psalm 37:4

When I was younger, I thought very scientifically. If I couldn't prove something, it simply must not be true. I had a real problem with the “leaps of faith” that God asked of people in the bible.

Reading a bible verse like this, a younger me would have interpreted it quite literally: If I pray, go to church, donate to charity, and follow the ten commandments (delight myself in the Lord), then of course, He will physically give to me all the things that I want (the desires of my heart.)

For example, let's say I did a good deed, all the while wishing for an A+ on that math test. When God didn't deliver with my perfect test score, my “God’s-not-real” radar instantly and instinctively went off. Younger me would conclude - either God was not real, the Bible was not really God's word to me, or God was an evil God who made this covenant with me, quid pro quo, delight for desires, and then backed out of His promise. All of these are dangerous conclusions, and conclusions that force a wedge between me and God – God is the enemy instead of the partner, ironically the exact opposite of what the passage intends.

Older wiser me (better at trusting God and letting go of the reins) reads it like this: If you keep your eyes and ears, intentions, speech, decisions, and actions on God, which aren’t limited to (and sometimes don’t include at all) the obligatory rituals of religion, He will place in your heart dreams and goals, passions and callings that make your will for you consistent with His will for you. God does not give you the things which you desire; He gives you your dreams, your actual desires.

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