It is just a little bend

Your love, God, fills the earth! Train me to live by your counsel. (Psalm 119:64 MSG)

We will always live by some set of 'rules' or 'standards'. Some might be quite 'good', while others may be a little on the 'errant' side. For example, we follow the speed limit - good; we spend all we make and never save anything for unexpected expenses - errant. We can follow the 'rules' set by others or those we set ourselves. For example, we pay our taxes each year - others set these rules for us; we go to bed each night in sufficient time to afford us seven hours of sleep - a rule set by us because of how it makes us feel. What we choose to 'live by' makes all the difference - who we choose to follow also makes a huge difference, doesn't it?

God's love fills the earth - it has nothing but the best in mind for us. Why do we resist following his 'rules' or 'standards' so much, then? We find ourselves trying to bend those rules just a smidgen so that they better 'fit' whatever it is we want to be doing. We call that 'situational ethics' - if it feels good, we can justify the bend to fit the moment. If we want God's blessings in our lives, we cannot just go around bending the rules all the time, though. We must 'temper' our desire to find a different path than the one he has laid out for us to follow. If we want this 'tempering' to occur, we have to desire to be trained to live by his counsel instead of our own.

Scripture wasn't written to 'fit' today's societal standards - it was written to outline God's unchanging standards. Try as we might, we cannot bend scripture to fit our desires. If we truly want to follow God with all our heart, we do it according to his. One who is trained submits to the training AND the trainer. I have never had a personal trainer, but I have gone through physical therapy due to physical injury to my body. I know what it means to follow their instructions. They have studied the workings of the human anatomy and know the stress those injuries have caused. When I take their instruction and follow it to the letter, I find my recovery goes so much quicker! 

The same is true when we follow God's directives. We don't know what causes us stress or injury most of the time - we just sense it is coming or has come into our lives. We don't see the forces at work around us in the spiritual realm, but he does. We don't understand the inner workings of our mind and heart as well as we should, but he does because he created them. So, why not listen to his instruction, do what he says, and realize a better outcome in the end? It could just be that we find 'bending the rules' isn't all that wise, nor is it all that rewarding. We might not see it at first, but with consistent application of his truth, our lives are always made better. Just sayin!