Forced Joy?

Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it.  Psalm 119:35  NASB Make me – What do you suppose would happen if you asked God to make you do something?  If He responded to that request, do you think there is any chance it wouldn’t happen?  Could you resist the ultimate omnipotence…

Prayers of Desire

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4  NASB Will give you – What a great promise!  Be greatly pleased with God and you’ll get everything your heart desires, right? Take pleasure in God and you’ll be guaranteed divinely provided health, wealth, and happiness (unless, of course, you desire…

The Hitchhiker’s Guide (17)

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?”  Matthew 6:25  NASB Do not be worried – We often read Yeshua’s words in…

What Do You Want?

Now the rabble who were among them had greedy cravings; and the sons of Israel also wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?  Numbers 11:4  NASB Had greedy cravings – It’s unfortunate that English translations convert this Hebrew phrase into modern psychology.  “Greedy cravings” removes the deeper impact of the Hebrew doubled word. …

On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand

Lord, all my desire is before You; and my sighing is not hidden from You.  My heart throbs, my strength fails me; and the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me.  Psalm 38:9-10  NASB My desire – Edward Mote (1797 to 1874) wrote the famous hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and…

Gardening

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.  Titus 3:3  NASB Lusts and pleasures – What’s the difference between lusts and pleasures?  Paul seems to think we need to know both words.  Why?  The Greek roots are epithymía and hēdonḗ.  Epithymía is desire, especially…

A Personal Ideal

How fair you are, how beautiful!  O Love, with all its raptures!  Song of Songs 7:7  JPS Its – Does the second part of this verse sound a bit strange to you?  The man begins with something we can easily understand.  He thinks his lover is incredibly beautiful.  But instead of “O love, with all…