Find Joy in God’s Commands

How I delight in Your commands! How I love them! I honor and love Your commands. I meditate on Your decrees. Psalm 119:47-48

God’s commands are His promises. Each command carries a promise of expectation including respect for God and others. David found joy…delight…in God’s commandments.

Ten Commandments

1. I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods.
2. Thou shall bring no false idols before me.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shall not kill (murder/or harm another’s character).
7. Thou shall not commit adultery.
8. Thou shall not steal.
9. Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. Thou shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The Commandments can simply be summed up in Jesus response to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" 

Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

Live up to those two commandments and God will be honored. Only thing is that Jesus also taught that as a person is as he thinks in his heart. Someone commits adultery if he just thinks about it. (See Matthew 5:27-30.)  I think the same can apply to any of the commandments.

For as he thinks within himself, so he is. …. Proverbs 23:7a NASB

I’ve found once again that I need to carefully guard my tongue…and since my words start in my mind—I need to be careful about what I think as well as speak. God probably won’t condemn us to hell just for speaking without thinking…but words can hurt and I need to be careful what I think and say. I don’t intentionally want to hurt others—but it happens so easily and words can’t be taken back. An apology is just that…an apology. The memory of the hurtful words can’t be erased. Forgiveness can be attained, but the situation won’t be forgotten. I’m trying to speak carefully. With God all things are possible—so there is hope that I won’t always be such a fool with a wicked tongue.

The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words. Proverbs 15:28

Such wisdom…tells me to keep my mouth shut. How about you? Are you able to think before speaking? I’d rather have joy from following God’s directives than regrets at destroying someone else’s character or my own when I stick my foot in my mouth.

Prayer ~ Lord God, I want to please You. Help me to bring You glory by thinking before I speak.

Daily Bible Reading: Amos 6-9

© 2017 Text and photos by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.

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