(from Streams of Living Water for a Thirsty Soul)
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8 (NRSV)
There are times in our lives when we struggle with “delighting” to do the will of God. We know the way the Lord wants us to go and how He wants us to react in certain situations, and we desire to obey Him. But it isn’t easy.
Self in us wants to have its way and we have to die to self in order to follow God’s will. The struggle of dying to self is painful, and that pain prevents us from experiencing an immediate delight in obeying God. In order to delight to do God’s will, His law has to be “in our hearts”–that means the desire to obey God’s law. Many people have God’s law in their heads (they know God’s law), but the desire to obey is not in their hearts.
When we’re younger, we sometimes have yet to experience the depths of peace, joy, and satisfaction that come with dying to self and doing God’s will. As we get older and have known those blessings, we find it easier to say with the Psalmist, “I delight to do Your will, O my God!”
Prayer: Thank You, God that you bring us to the place of delighting to do Your will. Thank You, too, for your blessings of peace, joy and satisfaction when we obey You.
Related verses: Psalm 1:2, 25:10, 37:31, 143:10; Jeremiah 31:33; Romans 7:22, 12:1-2; Hebrews 5:8
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