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Psalm 119:9-11 Wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto
according to Thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O
let me not wander from Thy commandments. They word have I hid in
mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Do I seek my Father with my whole heart - not lacking in any one part of me that doesn't desire, or even moreso, demand it of myself? This is a verse I wish to engrave upon my life with my actions. I
will call upon the Lord to go before me and to prepare my way; this
request acting as a reminder of my promise to Him to seek Him in all I
do with my whole heart. I cannot possibly
ask for God's guidance and assurance without receiving personal
conviction to give Him my whole heart in return.
The human appetite is a strange thing. It seems to me the longer I go without eating the less hungry I become. Don't
get me wrong - initially I want those things I have become accustomed
to, but as time goes by I find that my hunger recedes. And when given the opportunity to eat again I am initially unable to digest as much as I used to. It is the same way when we feed upon the Word. The longer we neglect our appetite for the Word the more our hunger and capactiy for it diminishes. Granted,
the taste is much more intense when we do eat again because we have
been deprived, but we are unable to initially digest the same amount
because we simply cannot contain it. We are suffering from anorexia while God is offering us a feast. Are you suffering from spiritual starvation? I urge you to taste and see God's goodness! "With
all my heart"...the defnition of the word heart according to Strong's
concordance encompasses the following, "soul, mind, knowledge,
thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination,
conscience, moral character, appetite, emotions, and passions". Imagine
for a moment, devoting every thought, every reflection of the mind,
every memory of the heart, every waking moment, every twinge of hunger,
every emotion, every passion to God. "Do not let me wander from your commandments." Do not give me a single opportunity to stray. If ever there were a request to which I could predict God's answer, it would be those words. I hear His emphatically loving, "No." Essentially we are saying, "Do not fail to prevent me of my own free will." The intention is good, but the request against the very nature of our God. It
can be interpretted as asking God to remove all accountability because,
after all, we asked Him to prevent the testing of our faith by removing
free will. Where is the testimony in a faith never tested?
© Victoria Sheahan, 2005
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