Homesick for What Can Be

 

How can a young man

     keep his way pure?

By guarding it

  according to Your Word...

I have stored up Your Word

          in my heart,

that I might not sin 

               against You.

            Psalm 119. 9, 11

(It is beyond any of us

   to live a fully moral life.

God's Word is not just

     a protective shield

               over our hearts.

God's Word changes our hearts.

Daily reading, listening, responding,

   alters our appetites,

   adjusts our affections,

   reorders our thoughts,

   heals, provides, nourishes,

rearranges the course of our day

     and the trajectory of our lives.

Are we intentionally storing up

    God's Word in our hearts?

It does not remain there void.

It cannot help but

       infiltrate every part of us:

how we respond to God,

see circumstances,

approach difficulties,

treat others,

and show the world

   a different way to live.

Make others homesick

        for what can be.)

O LORD,

Grant to us a desire for Your Word.

As we open Your scriptures,

   enlarge our hearts and souls.

We cannot understand it all,

    but we can understand something.

Provide to us a take-away verse,

      or passage, or even a word,

   to strengthen us through this day.

Infiltrate, invade, infect our hearts

   with Your life-changing Word.

Fill us with desire

          not just to read it,

but to live it outloud.

Help us today

   to do something different

  and unexpected

            as a result.