Incline My Heart

Scripture:
Lead me in the path of your commandments, 
for I delight in it. 
Incline my heart to your testimonies, 
and not to selfish gain!  (Psalm 119:35-36, ESV)

Observation:
-We must rely on God to lead us in the way we should go.
-Choose to live for Christ not for self-takes a change of heart to achieve.

Taken along a trail at Rocky Mountain Natl. Park 2013

Application:
Once again this Psalm is pointing out a significant fact- we cannot live our lives well apart from Christ.  It is only by the grace of God that we can even be called His children.  And what does He ask of us in return?  Faithfulness and obedience.  

When I consider that the only reason I call Him Father is because He first loved me; and loved me enough to send His Son to die for me a most gruesome death-how can I not help but delight in Him, and thus in His commandments and testimonies.  How can I not acknowledge that the life I now live is not mine but was bought with a high price.  I am forever grateful, forever in His debt.  When the truth of all of that penetrates my mind and my heart I find it easy to incline my heart to Him.  But again, I cannot do even this by the power of my own will.  God must do the inclining.  He must cause my heart to lean in this direction.  If I never spend time with Him in prayer and in His word just how do you think He will go about doing this?  I am not sure I want to find out, so I place myself in a position to let HIm have His way with me.  I do that by making time to sit at His feet and listen to His word.  I choose the better thing, just like Mary did so long ago. (Luke 10:38-42)

Grace, Peace, and Mercy,
Deb

---