God’s Word: at least as delightful as anything else we can acquire

By Dean Collins

“In the way of your testimonies,” the psalmist wrote, “I delight as much as in all riches.” I’m glad the psalmist didn’t say “more than,” because “as much as in” is already a high bar. In fact, it’s not the way most of us normally think. It’s hard to think and behave counter to the thousands of daily inputs that encourage us to believe acquiring more and more is the normal, even best, thing to do.

Consumer-driven

I’ve been fascinated with the many articles and news reports about supply chain and logistics. I’ve had conversations with leaders at the Georgia Ports Authority along with manufacturing executives and various other industry leaders who have all been impacted by supply chain interruptions over the last two years. I’ve heard many explanations about what is causing the bottlenecks: lack of workers, not enough trucks, not enough ships, and not enough places to unpack the cargo. But the root of the challenge is that we are buying more and more stuff!

We are a consumer-driven culture. In order to feed our obsessions of buying, we must earn more money to feed our appetite. Maybe we should go back to the Scriptures. Is it possible that our time and attention are more on the riches of this world than on the testimonies of God? I think the psalmist offers a pathway out of our challenges. We must learn to meditate on and fix our eyes on God’s truth.

Changed focus

The only way not to get trapped in the pursuit of acquiring more and more stuff is to change our focus. We cannot get there with an occasional glance at God’s Word. As much as I hope you enjoy and benefit from these devotionals I write, your enjoyment is not my goal. My goal is to help you want to read and focus on God’s Word. These devotionals are simply a prompt to direct you to a better world and way of life.

I do think that age and maturity are factors determining when and how we finally flip the switch to desiring God’s Word and ways more than we want the things we tend to accumulate. At some point, if we are honest with ourselves and with God, we realize we probably don’t need as much as we think. And as we mature we begin to realize that people, relationships, and all his creation we discover in nature are the bigger gifts God has for us. And the prize gift is a relationship with God filled with his love and grace. We won’t get to this maturity without intentionally choosing to read and focus on God’s Word.

Opened eyes

The psalmist’s prayer is a good starting place: “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” As God answers this prayer, I think we will begin to tip the scale back and find our balance.

I think Jesus may have been reflecting on a phrase or two from this psalm when he told us to be careful about our treasures. The truth is that if we focus on treasures in Heaven, we will end up with more than we can possibly imagine. We don’t need all the stuff we think we need down here on earth. We can’t take it with us anyway. There are no U-Haul rentals for our final journey. But with a proper focus on God’s Word, we will end up enjoying the beauty of all his treasures in the longer life we have to look forward to in Heaven!

Your time with God’s Word
Psalm 119: 14-16, 18 ESV

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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