Discipline is doing things toward a good and desirable end, that seem difficult for the moment. Sometimes studying the scriptures is more discipline and less rapturous revelation. Today, however, is different.
SCRIPTURE
Ps 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Thy law.
PRAYER
Father in heaven, we praise You, because you hide great truths from the learned and from great scholars, and reveal them to little children like us. We don’t know anything Lord, and what we know we can’t remember at all. We are completely lost without Your help Lord. We believe that there is more than correctness in Your word, we believe there is wonder and awe and grace and ultimate truth and pleasure there. Speak to us today Lord, or we wither and die!!! Amen.
LESSON
Yesterday we talked about the word OPEN, the opening of the eyes. Now I want to look at this, that the Psalmist prays, “Open MY eyes…”. He does not pray for a teacher’s eyes, or a pastor, or a parent, or spouse. I want MY OWN eyes to be open. We cannot live on the insight or spirituality of another. I myself am going to stand before God almighty, and I myself need to find the wonder. It is I who must acknowledge my own blindness, and it is I who must thirst for splendor. No one can give that to me but God, and even he apparently wants us to desire it, to pray for it. Wonderful things are hidden in His law, but they are hidden uniquely, one by one, from each person’s eyes. It is not enough that Max Lucado can write books about it. I must see it. MY eyes.
Open my EYES. Isn’t this curious? What does this mean? I’m reading it, right? Can’t read with your eyes closed, right? What are my “eyes”? This is such a huge question. I think that, until you have perceived the worship, the glory, the wonder, that is in the passage, if you see only the morals, or the conviction, you have not seen it straight. Until your mind and your emotion and your practice align to celebrate that truth, your eyes are still closed. Find worship there, not shame, and you’ve found the hidden treasure.
Application
Your assignment: find a wonderful thing from His law, and worship Him for it. Pray, or even better, journal a prayer in writing in which you seek and praise Him for its wonder.