“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psa 119:103 ESV)
Like many of us, Christians, I often find it a chore to study God’s Word. It takes time, effort and discipline to do. It is like a duty I struggle to fulfil, a demand I seek to meet. Yet, Psalm 119:103 states otherwise, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” God’s Word should bring pleasure and delight to His children. As John Piper puts in, “Christianity ss not a matter of demands, resolutions and will power. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in and what is good to us.”
The Word [Jesus] was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and yet was not received by those who chose to live in darkness. Man had loved darkness more than light (Jn 3:19).Thus, as children of light, it is only natural that we love the Word of God. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” the psalmists declared. For by God’s Word we are led to walk in His way and bring Him joy, delight and glory.
How then can I delight in God’s Word?
It is to be in love with God all over again. Remember how excited it was God’s love to us when we first came to know Him? Just like when we first fell in love, there was never enough time you want to spend and get to know the one you fell in love with: the long conversations, the listening of each other’s voices, the discovery of the other and unveiling of yourself and getting to know each other more and deeper and deeper. There was a thirst for knowing each other. As David puts it in Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Then God will open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of His Word (Ps 119:18), Such wondrous promises that will see us through our walk with Him and live the victorious Christian life. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2Pe 1:3-4 ESV).
Thanks be to God for such wondrous promises through His Word. And His Word sanctifies us. Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against Thee.
Here are some of God’s promises:
- For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (2Cor 1:20 ESV)
- For I know the plans I have for you (Jer 29:11 ESV)
- He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength (Isa 40:29 ESV)
- No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom 8:37 ESV)
- whoever listens to me will dwell secure (Pro 1:33 ESV)
- Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you (Joh 14:27 ESV)
- He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phi 1:6 ESV)
With so much at stake and God’s amazing love for us, how can I not love Him and be grateful for that? Knowing God is a delight, a pleasure, not a chore: “We have the Word of life”.
Brother Tony Yuen
