MAKING APPLICATION

Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules.  Psalm 119:164

Praise is reserved for Sunday morning worship.  It does not characterize a fraction of most daily prayers. Knowing this, and reading of David’s frequency to praise God for His Word, I can be motivated by guilt to do better in order to be more like David.  I can start building ‘prayers of praise’ into my day’s calendar, consciously making an effort every hour to say the words.  How long can I perform under such pressure?  A while.  Eventually though, I’ll burn out because the problem wasn’t my schedule.  It was my heart.

Such is the dilemma of how to apply scripture.

§    Job forgave his three insensitive friends.  I should forgive mine.

§    Paul said that he was content in all circumstances.  I should quit complaining.

§    Jesus said, “Not my will, but thine be done.”  I should resign myself to whatever God wants and tell my heart to expect less.

§    James said that my tongue needs to be controlled.  I’ll choose to sit on inappropriate comments.

Welcome to the way I used to live.  This outlook toward my Christian life was shallow and consisted of nothing more than behavior modification.  The Word became an exhaustive ‘to-do’ list while my heart languished for want of attention.

If I fail to praise, it is because my heart is not engaged.  I am capable of praising other people and other things.  I will go on and on about what is valuable to me, what is life changing and life saving.  If I don’t praise God, spontaneously, for His Word, it is only because I haven’t found it to be my lifeline.

§    Wow, David praises God seven times a day for His Word.

§    I’m not sure my heart feels that passionately.

§    What is keeping my heart from feeling that way?

§    Lord, show me.

§    Awaken my heart to the power of Your Words.  Give me the grace to apply them so that when I do, they save my life.

§    I see it, Lord.  I praise what I love.  I praise what has changed my life.

It’s always about my heart.  Not about my performance.  Thank you for teaching me to live love-driving, not guilt-driven.  Amen