This is going to be short and sweet :) It is so encouraging to me and I have to share it!
Psalm 112:1 says, "Praise the Lord! How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments."
Rules and commandments feel stifling to me. They are the things I have to do in order to survive or to keep my life from being chaotic. They feel like the chores of life. Not things I particularly relish doing, but know I must. I could compare them to doing laundry or dishes or, worse yet, cleaning the toilets! Ugh!
Recently, I lost the use of my dryer. It broke and for several days I did my best to dry my clothes in it . . . this did not work so well. After two days of running a couple loads ALL DAY LONG, it was decided that the thing must be fixed. I was without a dryer and this felt immensely frustrating to me. The laundry pile was growing exponentially each day. On top of things, I had decided it would be great fun to pick 60 some pounds of strawberries, so I also had a lot of berries to take care of. (Don't worry. I gave some of them away and did not actually do 60 pounds of strawberries!) However, between the berries, a broken dryer, fussing children, and my bad attitude, the day was rather stressful. I was worried about having to haul my clothes into the laundry mat and was having a rather royal pity party about it. I was thankfully blessed by a friend who offered her dryer to me for a couple of days so that I could tackle the laundry pile, which by this time, had turned into Mount Everest. After a few trips back and forth to Centreville to drop off and retrieve my laundry, waiting a day for the heater coil to arrive, and a trip to Home Depot for some parts, my husband got the dryer fixed! YEAH! I have never in my life been so excited about doing the laundry! Even today, as I dried a load of towels, I found myself getting very excited because they were dry the first time through! AWESOME! The point of all of this is to say, in the past I absolutely hated doing the laundry. But my perspective has now changed. It is no longer a chore, because I find great delight in what my dryer has to offer me. I do not want to be without my dryer again . . . ever! With great joy I can do the laundry even if I have two Mount Everest piles to do! (By the way, you all can remind me of this if I ever forget and I start to complain about the laundry!)
This is just like God's commandments. (Well, in my mind anyway. Stick with me for a moment.) They feel like drudgery to us, until we realize what life is like without them. They are protection for us and were never meant to subject us. It is a joy and a delight to carry out the commandments of God, because we know how miserable life would be without them. I do not want to be without the protection of God in my life. I do not want to look anymore at His commandments in my life as a chore, something I have to do in order to reach heaven, or as a checklist to mark off everyday. No, they are joy; they are life to me! And for that I give thanks to a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to set boundaries over me! I give thanks for His protection over me! I can take great delight in His commandments over me! Thank you Jesus! Thank you for holding me in your hand, for hiding me under your wing, for protecting me on every side! Great is your faithfulness and your love for me! Your banner over me is love!
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