“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
Often a verse of scripture will catch my attention and suggest some things to share with you. Psalm 16:11 is one of those verses. It suggests three things that everyone needs to know about God/Jesus. They are things that we are probably aware of, but just need to be reminded of from time to time. The first thing is: “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” One important teaching of the Bible is that we never walk alone. Sometimes we feel that we are walking the path of life alone, but there is One who is with us to show us the path of life. Can’t you look back on your life and see that some paths that you have taken were not really of your own choice? I look back over my life and I can see that there was an “unseen hand” guiding my footsteps along the way. I think that all of us would like to think that this was true of all of the paths we have taken. Some of the paths we have taken in life were based on our choices, and we paid the price for them. We allowed Satan to lead us astray. But I hope that you can join me in saying that in every meaningful and significant path of life that we have taken, the Lord has held our hands and carried us through. I look at the things that really count in my life and know that I had to be following the leadership of the Lord. I could make a long list for you, as you could for me, of these “paths.” It just suffices to say that we haven’t walked this path of life alone, and that we should be grateful for it. The second important thing is: “in thy presence if fullness of joy.”Notice that the psalmist wrote “in thy presence.” This means that when we are really in the presence of God, standing firmly in His will for our lives, there is fullness of joy. I guess that we have all taken steps in life where we did not consider the presence of God and at the end we did not find His joy. In fact, out of the consciousness of His presence, we found shame and regret. But that was our fault. If we do not have the joy that we should have it is not God’s fault. He has abundant joy for us at every turn in life, even those turns that might not seem joyful at the time. In John 15:11, John quoted Jesus: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Christian friends, Jesus has given us His joy. Think of that for a moment. We have the joy of Jesus within us as a gift from Him. We do not have to conjure up joy; we already have it in Jesus. This is what makes our joy "full." Remember: “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” The fullness of joy comes from our personal relationship with Jesus. In Jesus, we find joy in things that many people would not find joy in. That’s because they are looking to be“happy” in life instead of joyful. Happiness is fleeting, joy is eternal. If you don’t have that joy, you can claim it by faith in Jesus now. The third thing is: “At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” “At thy right hand” maintains that we are living close to Jesus, who gives us “pleasures forevermore.” We are a pleasure loving people in America and this should really appeal to us. However, we need to keep in mind that this closeness to Jesus helps us to redefine pleasure in our lives. To be sure, we enjoy the same pleasures that every human being enjoys, but these pleasures do not define our lives. Our lives are defined by the pleasures of worship and praise for the One who has saved us for all eternity. We have the pleasure of knowing that we are in right relationship with the God of all of the ages. We have the pleasure of knowing that we will live with Him forever in heaven. I think that you will agree that these are three important things that we need to know about God. Rejoice in them. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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