What must you do to have everything you ever wanted?
If you’re new here, each week we all learn about and memorize a Bible verse together. We’ve put the verse(s) into song to help you learn the verse and recall it during your day. If you’d like to see the archives of all the verses we’ve done so far, you can find our posts here and a list of all the YouTube videos here. We’ll also be giving a family update on what has happened in the past week.
Family Update
G’s first swim lesson went well! He tried something new during class (blowing bubbles in the water), without much complaint, even though he was resistant at first. He’s the biggest kid in the class, but he definitely needed to start here. 🙂
My little E got a pretty good bonk on the head this week, that first day he had a good sized goose egg on his head, but by the next day it went down. So glad that there weren’t any other issues with that!
Their homeschooling is progressing. K has finished going through his fisrt McGuffery reader, and so has started on the Getting Ready 2 section of Allinonehomeschool.com. That means he’s on the kindergarten level! I can’t believe how fast these boys are learning!
Joe finally did his presentation on Saturday and he’s so glad that’s done. It was a lot of preparation. He thinks it went better than he expected, but definitely could have been better. He’s giving the same presentation this Thursday night, which should thankfully take less work to prepare for.
This verse today is one that I’ve been working on with Z. This is the first verse we’re working on with him, and it’s so cute! He’s only 2 1/2, so he’s taking his time with it, and I’m not actually sure when he’ll have it memorized so he can say it on his own. But here it is for you.
Scripture Memory Song
Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
Devotional
What do you find delight in? This verse brings that question to mind. When I really think about it, I have to admit that my delight usually isn’t in the LORD. My delight usually comes from things going the way I desire them to. Then when I don’t get the desires of my heart, my joy and delight vanishes.
But that’s not the way this verse says it’s supposed to work! My delight shouldn’t come from my own selfish desires, but from the LORD. It says first, that we’re supposed to delight ourselves in the LORD!
How do we do that? By reading the rest of Psalm 37, I think we get our answer.
- Trust in the LORD (v3) and take refuge in him (v40). He has said we can trust him, and that he will provide what we need. We can run to him in times of trouble, and he will protect us from the storm. Turning to him takes trust, because many times, we prefer to try to figure out how to handle things on our own.
- Commit your way to the LORD (v5), turning away from evil and doing good (v27). When we say we’re going to follow him, that means turning away from the things that God says are evil, and choosing to do instead the things that he says are good. We may not always understand why those things are the way God says, but this also comes under trusting him, that what he says is true, and that we’ll be blessed if we follow him instead of our own ways.
- Be still before the LORD and wait patiently (v7), not worrying about those who do evil (v7). He calls us to be still and wait patiently for him to act sometimes. We can’t compare ourselves to others, or worry about the evil someone is committing. God says that the evil doer will be dealt with, and the righteous will get his reward. So lets wait for the LORD, and focus on our own righteousness, and not the sins of others. This one is really hard for me!
- Be content with what you have (v16), and be generous and give (v21). When we’re content with what God’s given us, we choose joy. And giving of what he’s provided us with is another form of trust, that we trust he will provide for us, even as we’re giving to help others.
- Delight in his way (v23), with the law of God on your heart (v31). We delight in the LORD’s way, by knowing what his word says! Delighting in the LORD, comes from reading his word, learning who he is, and how he says we’re to live our life. Our delight comes from knowing that we can follow him now, even though it may not be easy, and that we will delight to be in paradise with him for eternity!
It says that when we delight in the LORD, we’ll get the desires of our hearts. What does that mean? That we’ll get everything we really want in life, if we just delight in God enough? NO! It means that when our delight is in the LORD, our desires will be his desires. We will want to do the things he as planned for us, because he is our delight, and to do his work is our good pleasure.