What Do You Enjoy Doing Most?

April 17, 2012 joy No Comments

Greg Ogden in The Essential Commandment relates a story that occurred during the life of the late Senator Robert Kennedy.  During a visit to Brazil, Kennedy was taken to the interior to observe some of the tribal life.  Through an interpreter, he was introduced to a native Brazilian who had been recently converted to Christ.  Kennedy told the interpreter to ask him what he enjoys doing the most.  The native Brazilian’s surprising reply was, “Being occupied with God.”  The senator, expecting the man to say something like fishing or hunting, was convinced that something had been lost in translation.  So, he repeated the question, only to hear the same reply:  “Being occupied with God.” (p. 25). 
What do you enjoy doing most?  What gives you the greatest delight?  These question test our interests and affections.  They probe the heart.  Long ago the Psalmist answered these questions.
First, delight in the LORD.  “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psa. 37:4).  The first object of human affections should be God.  The love of devotion to God manifests itself in complete surrender to His purposes for our life. 
Second, delight in the law of the LORD.  “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psa. 1:1-2).  The law of the LORD is a treasure house of wisdom and instruction.  It is a piece of the mind of God revealed to the hearts of men.  It instructs in the way of righteousness or the pathway to heaven. 
Third, delight in obeying the will of God.  “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psa. 40:8).  It is one thing to know God and His will and quite another to obey it.  Our lives will never experience the complete transformation that God intends unless we obey His will.  God’s will is revealed in His Word.  God’s Word calls us to a life of holiness (I Thess. 4:7).  James exhorts us to “be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). 
What do you enjoy doing the most?