Tag Archives: Devotional Time

God’s Will God’s Way

Chapel
Chapel in Jerusalem around 1940.

For decades now, I have had the practice of enjoying a morning devotional time. I go through the Bible cover to cover, and right now I am in the Psalms. I genuinely love the Psalms, and I enjoy reading them, and then praying them back to God in my own words. Psalm 1 is a really great one.

Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The word of God is like the Living Waters described in this verse. When we love the Word, and when we spend time in it our life will be filled with joy and all good things. This verse can often be misapplied to indicate that by seeking God’s word and spending time in it, we will always get the things we want. I don’t think that is the promise here. I believe what happens is that as we love and seek God through time in His word, the desires of our heart are molded and formed to match His good and perfect will for our lives. By delighting in God’s word each day, the desires of our heart are conformed to Him . . . it is not that He conforms to our desires.

There is no greater joy than to be able to live where the desires of our heart are aligned with God’s will. Then genuinely we find that we will be like a tree planted rivers of water, getting our strength and sustenance from that river. What we do then prospers, because the things we are doing are genuinely God’s will. Our plans prosper when we do God’s will God’s way.