The trouble with living God’s ways is that it does not seem to “pay” to do so. There is no immediate benefit to it!

Perhaps it is the fault of the popular preachers and Christians writers who made us think that if we follow God, then good things will start happening to us almost instantly. How many stories have we heard that would attest to that belief?

– A young woman leaves her boyfriend whom she’s living with, and God grants her a husband material the next day!

– A drug addict severs his ties with his drug-buddies and come to God in repentance, and all his desires for drugs are instantly gone!

– A struggling father apologizes to his children for neglecting them, and the children turn around and now they have a happy family!

But these things rarely happen in real life. We only hear such stories precisely because they are so rare! Yet, we come to believe that they are normative.

The Bible gives no such impression. Listen to this psalm.

Trouble and distress have overtaken me,

but your commands are my delight.

Your decrees are righteous forever.

Give me understanding and I will live.

Psalm 119:143-144

Have you noticed that even though God’s commands are his delight, he’s still in trouble and distress? In other words, this palmist delights to obey God’s commands in spite of them NOT bringing him immediate relief from his trouble and distress. And he does not abandon living God’s way just because it had no immediate benefit!

Do you follow God’s ways only because it pays to do so? Or do you do so because you delight to delight God?

If the former, you won’t last long. If the latter, you have found joy that goes beyond this world. You are truly happy.

PH