Thoughts of Day 44: The laws of the Old Testament were created to show the people the need for them to rely on God. Our Governments make laws to help us be better people and create a civil society. Sports give us rules so the game will run smooth and all is fair. Jesus narrowed all the laws down into two simple statements; 1) Love God, 2) Love your neighbor. Everything else can be seen in these, if you loved your neighbor would you lie, steal, hurt him?
Day 44
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. (Psalm 119:18 NIV)
Wait a minute, laws are rules, rules are restrictive, how can I see wonderful things in your law, it makes no sense.
You probably hear lots if reasons people won’t go to church but one I hear a lot is the fact that there are so many rules to follow. They focus on the rule it self but don’t really look at the consequences in their lives if they don’t follow it. Now I am not promoting legalism but just follow me for a minute.
The church says you shouldn’t have sex before marriage. Keep the marriage bed pure. The non-believer will say “your trying to take my fun away” but the don’t see the negative side of sex before marriage, such as unplanned pregnancy, STDSs, higher rate of divorce once you do get married. To see the wonderful side if that “law” is that God will bless you for being faithful. Your connection with your spouse will be stronger. And outside desires for others will be weaker as you don’t know what you are missing out on.
This is only one example but I just want to say that we serve a loving God, who like our earthly father outs rules in place for our benefit. He wants us to be safe, and when we decide that His rules are not worth following and we want to go out on our own that even then His rules will follow us. I was reading today about the prodigal son and when he was in the pig pen, feeding them corn it read he wanted to eat the corn cobs but no one gave him any. Why didn’t he just take them? It read like he was left alone to do this job, but I believe his father taught him not to steal and his teachings as a child kicked in and he wouldn’t steal even from the pigs.
So in saying all this, Remember that God isn’t here to make your life miserable with rules. He knows what’s best for you and has given us guidelines to live by, and if followed will provide us with wonderful things if we only open our eyes.
Dear Jesus, open my eyes to the wonders of your law. I trust you have my best interests at heart and are protecting me from evil. Thank you for everything you do for me. Amen
50 Days of Pray 