Life Preserver

How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness. Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Psalm 119:40, 97

Usually rules, regulations and laws bring to mind constriction and denial. No, you can't do this or that. No, that is not allowed. Putting restrictions on our human freedom feels claustrophobic to our minds. Not being allowed to do what we please usually drives us to want to do whatever it is even more. Our human nature has, since the perfection of the Garden of Eden, bucked the idea of constraints. Even in the most ideal environment God could place us in, we longed for something 'better.' There is always something else we desire just teasing us from around the corner. The words "if only" and "someday" drop in and out of our thoughts. Instead of being imprisoned by laws or situations, we become captive to our own desire for more or better things; things which we falsely believe will set us free. Somehow we twisted the law into hurting us, not helping and protecting us. We have also warped our selfish desires into things we think will set us free, not enslave us to them.

Enter Psalm 119. The longest chapter in the Bible has its central theme focused on the love for God's law. Love is not a word commonly associated with law. We have divorced the notion of love and law. To begin reconciling the two, we need to read God's law, the Bible. The only way you can develop a deep and lasting love for something is to spend time with it. Next, we need to surrender to it. Fighting against the law of God is only going to frustrate us. Sounds simple, but it becomes a daily, sometimes minute-by-minute challenge. When we learn to do these things, love for the divine law blossoms. We understand why God set up these precepts. We know that the love He has for us can feed the love we have for Him. True satisfaction sets in, and the selfish desires of our heart diminish. The challenge for today is to start cultivating love for God's law. Begin to understand the law is there for our safety, protection and ultimately so that we can truly praise and honor the Law-Giver.

God, I want to delight in Your law. Nurture the love for You in me so that I can better understand and apply the teachings of Your Word to my life. Amen.

Nikki Hamsher