Your testimonies are my heritage forever,
for they are the joy of my heart.
I incline my heart to perform your statutes
forever, to the end.
Psalm 119:111-112
Scripture can provide both a rich heritage and an abundantly rewarding future. And as I meditate on these two verses in reflection upon my life, I too am struck with the wonder of realizing how scripture has powerfully influenced the timeline of my life. I am grateful for what God is doing.
First, the gospel truths of the Bible are my heritage. They have made me what I am as much as anything God has done in me. It all started 48 years ago when my family first truly heard and believed the gospel. And since then I have sat under and sometimes tried to pay attention to countless sermons, (that’s around 2400 weekly sermons... but who’s counting?) a few hundred of those sermons God has led me to preach. For 38 of these years I have sought the daily discipline of reading, thinking upon, and journaling the Bible. I try to average 5 out of 7 days, leading to 103 recorded journals and about 9,800 daily reflections. That’s a joyful heritage, and I’m not done yet!
But all that past doesn’t guarantee a thing unless I DAILY incline my heart to obey what God’s Word and His Spirit show me. And that takes effort because my heart still sinfully leans away from doing this. And that is where faith keeps me moving forward. I want the prayer of this psalm to keep guiding me every morning that I am blessed to awaken to a brand new day: “I incline my heart to perform Your statutes forever.” God’s Word will not let me down. I will keep His voice the first I want to hear on my daily agenda so that I might listen to Him in holy conversation all day. God’s Word has never let me down. People have. My pride has. My goals have. Jesus hasn’t! Jesus’ saving and redeeming work is all through the pages of God’s Holy Word, ensuring that I will find rich reward always. This will reward me, redeem me, and keep me to the end... and then forever into eternal life.
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