God Comforts Me

Psalm 94:19 (New Living Translation)

¹⁹ When doubts filled my mind,
your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

Give me happiness...

Psalm 86:4 (New Living Translation)

"Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you."

Willingness, Obedience & Joy

Psalm 51:12 (New Living Translation)

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you."

The Psalmist asks the LORD to restore to him the joy of his salvation, and then in the same sentence or breath, he asks the LORD to make him willing to obey Him.

I think the Psalmist recognized a link between obedience and joy. He realized that he needed to obey the LORD to have His joy. He realized that, without obedience, the relationship is broken and we cannot have joy. Such a short verse, but it teaches so very much.

The Psalmist recognized that we can do nothing without the LORD. The LORD gives us the very willingness to obey Him as well as joy. So very often, I think of obeying God and joy as separate. I fear that God will ask me to do something that brings my life something very far from joy. Often what God asks me to do is hard... not easy, but what Jesus did for us was not easy. How great it is that I can learn from the Psalmist to ask God for help with this. Lord make me willing to obey you...

"The joy of my salvation..."

I find myself being so petty. Worried about how healthy my dog is and how things are going at work and what to cook for dinner. All earthly things. But, I guess this is to be expected since earthly is all I "really" know. But... God is worried about my salvation.

I should take joy in the fact that I have been saved from everlasting condemnation and that I experience grace and mercy everyday of my life. I can have relationship with God through Christ. Wow! I should be praising... not worrying.

When I think of what Christ did for me and how superficial my life is to the grand scope of what Jesus did, my problems seem much smaller. Maybe that is part of the joy of my salvation. The very grandness of what Jesus did for me makes my problems seem smaller.

And, then.... He answers my prayers for the small, petty things in life... a paper I lost at work, lost earrings, paying bills, getting a parking space at the store, rain holding off because I don't want to walk in the rain in the shoes I wore to work... and I am so overjoyed that He actually cares about me!

The Joy of my salvation and obedience... so very much to ponder...

Until next time...