A Thought For The Week Of September 19, 2016

"The precepts of the Lord are right,  giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes." (Psalm 19:8) If you were going to sit down and make a list of the qualities that faith in God should bring into your life, you could do worse than starting with what's mentioned in this single verse: joy and light. There are others, of course. Peace jumps into my mind. There's contentment and thankfulness. Paul, of course, offers a list of what he describes as the fruit of the Spirit. These are all qualities that one could argue should be characteristics of a life lived in Christian faith and in relationship with Jesus. But maybe joy and light would be the best to start with. God's precepts bring joy, we're told. Precepts would be general principles to live by. The point, I suppose, is that by living broadly in the way that God intends, we find joy - which might also include contentment and peace. In this context, I don't think that "joy" means precisely "happiness." I'm not sure God or Scripture ever really promises "happiness." Happiness is an emotional state that's generally dependent on our circumstances at any given time. Joy is a spiritual state that manifests itself in things like contentment and peace. And the verse then moves from "precepts" to "commands," which might be the move from living according to general principles revealed by God to living specifically according to God's expectations. Learning what God expects of us brings us light - wisdom, or knowledge; knowledge of God and knowledge of the world and even knowledge of ourselves. I don't believe we're thinking of God's commands in the sense of "do this or you'll be mercilessly punished" (although some speak of it this way.) Instead, I think we're speaking of understanding God's expectations, which gives us the wisdom to know when we haven't lived up to those expectations, which also gives us the wisdom to claim God's grace. Ultimately, for me as a Christian, everything has to point to God's grace. So, to me, a verse such as this reminds me that if I strive to live as God wants me to live, I will find myself content in the knowledge that I know not only God - but that I will also discover God's amazing grace active in my life.