Laws

​A crumpled gray Saturn blocks the intersection while scores of drivers stuck by the accident sputter at the infuriating delay.  Firemen extract the old woman from her car smashed by a young man in a big hurry.  She saw a green light and preceded east on Canon Street.  He was headed south on Anarchic Avenue.  Irritated and in a hurry he ignored the red and sped through the intersection broad siding the hapless woman.  

Why is it that so many people disdain laws and take unbelievable steps to circumvent them? Why did the Lawgiver also build within us the freedom to obey or disobey Him?  It is interesting to note in Psalm 119, the observations of a writer whose soul was consumed with continuous longing and love for God’s laws. (vss. 20,97). Can you remember anyone ever walking up to you and saying, “I just love God’s laws!”?  In truth, what we love says a lot about our character. As the Psalmist prayed, may we pray, “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wonderful things from Your instruction” (119:18).

Selfishness is a formidable enemy of the law.  The Psalmist wrote, “Turn my heart to Your decreesand not to material gain” (119:36). Our desire to please our flesh results in our undoing.  Because selfishness is often subtle and insidious a good prayer is, “Help me understand Your instruction,and I will obey it and follow it with all my heart” (119:34). 

We also need to avoid making excuses.  Satan whispers, “You’re already flawed and it’s impossible to be holy so just do the best you can and don’t worry about breaking a few laws.”  Oswald Chambers aptly notes, “Because a thing is impossible in a man’s present moral imperfection it does not mean he is exonerated from it.  God’s law has nothing to do with possibility or impossibility.”  When we set our desires first we find the end result of our experiments to be chaos, pain and disrepute.  When we put His kingdom and will first we die to self and profoundly experience the liberty contained in obedience.  

The Benefits of God’s Laws

• They provide us counsel and delight--“Your decrees are my delight and my counselors . . .Help me stay on the path of Your commands, for I take pleasure in it” (119:24,35).
• They provide us comfort—“Lord, I remember Your judgments from long ago and find comfort” (119:52).
• They give us peace and keep us from moral failure--“Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your instruction; nothing makes them stumble” (119:165).
• They preserve our lives—“I will never forget Your precepts, for You have given me life through them” (119:93).
• They make us wise and understanding—“I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way” (119:104).
• Keeping them brings God’s approval!—“You reject all who stray from Your statutes, for their deceit is a lie” (119:118).

 
Inspiration
God’s laws are not watered down to suit anyone; if God did that He would cease to be God.  The moral law never alters for the noblest or the weakest; it remains abidingly and eternally the same.—Oswald Chambers in Biblical Ethics              
If God exists, everything is possible; if there is no God, everything is permitted.—Dostoyevsky
 
©2005 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box. Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)