Teach Me Your Will: Devotional Thoughts from Psalm 143

  

Today’s devotional is about learning to do the will of God. Learning to do anything new is often hard. I remember learning to ride my bike for the first time. It was hard, and so was the ground. But, the reward was great! I’m not having a great day today, so I guess, God must have a new bike ready for me to learn how to ride.

Read Psalm 143. Picture yourself in David’s place. And then, turn your eyes again to our focus verse. God has something to teach us.

Focus Verse:  Psalm 143:10

“Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God.  May Your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground.”

Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  Failure is part of life.  We don’t like hearing this.  We only want to hear that it’s going to be okay.  Well, that is just not true.

My favorite Christian artist is Rich Mullins.  He died in a tragic car accident in the fall of 1997.  His songs still speak deeply to me today.  One song entitled, Bound to Come Some Trouble, has especially meant a lot to me during hard times.  Allow me to share a few lines from the song:

There’s bound to come some trouble to your life

But that ain’t nothing to be afraid of

There’s bound to come some trouble to your life

But that ain’t no reason to fear

I know there’s bound to come some trouble to your life

But reach out to Jesus and hold on tight

He’s been there before and He knows what it’s like

You’ll find He’s there

Rich caught a lot of flack over this song.  It wasn’t upbeat and cheery.  It was sad and hard to hear.  But the reality is “there’s bound to come some trouble to your life.”  And it is these hard things, these impossible circumstances, which God uses to help us become more like Christ.

Psalm 143 is a cry for help.  David is desperate for God to rescue him.  And in the middle of all his cries for help, David asks God, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.”  David knows God is in control, and the best way to learn His will is to go through and not around the storm.

Real Choices:

Are you ready for God to use any circumstance in your life to teach you to do His will?  Today choose to see difficulties as opportunities to learn how to obey the will of God.

Digging Deeper:

Read James 1:2-4.  List all the things God wants to do for you when you suffer? 

Pray:

“Teach me to do you will, for you are my God.”  Help me to remember you are MY God.

Copyright © August 2007 by Taylor W. Kendrick

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