Can You Train Yourself to Do God’s Will?
Can you train yourself to do God’s will?
Psalm 119:48 says: I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
It takes little effort to do God’s will when you enjoy it. Enjoyment of following the rules isn’t always easy. There is the natural tendency to rebel because it feels good to live dangerously and exert our independence. But, just like earthly leaders, God does not find pleasure in disobedience.
I believe the words of Psalm 119:48 give us an insight to a process that can help us to train ourselves to do God’s will. Here are three points from this passage to consider:
(1) Love grows with courtship
Following God and His ways is a relationship. Learning to love the commands of God is like an earthly relationship: the more you experience them, examine them, see the good in them, and assess what they can do for you, the more likely you will want to be with them for the long-term.
There will be times you struggle with them, but if you do not give up on that continued relationship, that love will grow stronger. Perhaps if we saw following God’s Word more in this way, we might be more inclined to see how we can be supportive and renewed by God’s Word, and the reciprocal nature of serving and receiving.
(2) Lift your hands with the intent of grasping the commandments
You can reach for something with or without the proper intent. It can be a lifeline when you’re desperate, or it can be an affirmative intention to understand and master what is in front of you.
If you’re living just to take hold of the commandments of God as a lifeline, you will find out that desperation will only get you so far. Eventually it gets tiring, and you will move on to something else. God’s intention is that, what once was a lifeline would become a solid presence in your life.
There is a profitability in grasping the commandments. Taking hold of something, or the intent thereto, shows ownership. Taking hold of something with intent means that you have a stake in the game. God called the Israelites to pray for the prosperity of the cities in which they lived, even outside of Israel, because in doing so, they would help their own prosperity. The same thing goes with the commandments of God: pray for them and their prosperity in this world, and they will cause your spiritual growth to prosper.
(3) Put on your thinking cap
God gives us reasoning ability for a purpose; He does not want us to continually act on instinct. Following His Word is a learned behavior. It is not a process built on instinct. The more we put on our thinking caps and look at why God has called us to follow certain rules and decrees, the more we will see that they are beneficial to us and give us the opportunity to grow and find new pleasures in His grace. Those who do not want to think about the statutes of God do not fully grasp what it means to live in harmony with God. They will not realize the benefit and love of our Savior, only simple obedience or disobedience. Reason leads to comprehension, and comprehension leads to love.
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Receiving God’s Word joyfully makes it so much easier to live in peace with His Word. God does not want us to live in fear of His will for us, but to embrace it as a blessing of help for our constant edification. Let us remember these simple words of the psalmist. God’s Word is not His alone, it is ours as well. Amen.
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