Resolve to Dine with Jesus everyday

“More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. ¹¹ Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:10-11).

The Psalmist writes that God’s word is to be desired more than Gold. When we don’t desire the word as such this is a sign of spiritual ill health. Why don’t some Christians have such a desire for God’s word? We've it heard said concerning the enjoyment of certain foods, “This is an acquired taste.” In a way, Christians must also acquire a taste for God’s word through the Spirit as we take time to read it and meditate upon it. The problem is that we often don’t take time for the word of God or we eat it on the run. Have you ever said to someone who invited you for dinner, “I’m sorry, but I have to eat and run.” Why do we say such a thing? We say them when we are in a hurry.  We say them when we have other things to do and other places to go. We want, “Meals on Wheels.” We will eat the food in order to not offend the person who took time to prepare it.  But we really don’t have time to sit with the person who prepared it and enjoy the meal with them. Sadly, this is how we often approach God's Holy word.

God’s word is the feast that He has prepared for us to enjoy with Him. But often we don’t have the time because we have other things to do. And if we do eat the meal we do so on the run—we eat it while our minds are on the things we need to do or the places we need to go. Sometimes what we do is settle for the Pop Tart one minute devotional because anything more than that would take too much time. Surely their are difficult passages in the bible that will take some time to study, meditate upon and digest in order to savor its goodness. But that just it, we don’t take the time to acquire that taste. The Pop Tart that someone else cooked up will have to do.  But the truth is that this approach to the bible will not sustain us. It will not increase our affections for God and his word in such a way that causes our affections for sin to decrease.

God desires for us to sit down and enjoy every day the meal that he has prepared for us. More than that, He desires that we enjoy the meal with Him. “Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelations 3:20). This kind of communion with Jesus doesn’t happen on the run. You can’t get it to go. You see, what we need is not simply information from God, but transformation as we behold His glory. We need our minds to be renewed (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:18). This renewing of the mind, which leads to transformation happens when we stay for the meal because we want to enjoy communion with Jesus. When we dine with Jesus we do much more listening than we do talking. When we dine with Jesus we eat slow because we want to savor every moment. While we are enjoying the meal, we are asking, “Lord tell me more about the wonder of who you are and your ways.” When we dine with Jesus the cares of this life and the affections for this world diminishes in the presence of His Holiness and love. “Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine.”

Jesus has a table spread
Where the saints of God are fed,
He invites His chosen people, “Come and dine”;
With His manna He doth feed
And supplies our every need:
Oh, ’tis sweet to sup with Jesus all the time! 

        Refrain:
      “Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine”;
        You may feast at Jesus’ table all the time;
        He Who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine,
        To the hungry calleth now, “Come and dine.”

The disciples came to land,
Thus obeying Christ’s command,
For the Master called unto them, “Come and dine”;
There they found their heart’s desire,
Bread and fish upon the fire;
Thus He satisfies the hungry every time.

Soon the Lamb will take His bride
To be ever at His side,
All the host of heaven will assembled be;
Oh, ’twill be a glorious sight,
All the saints in spotless white;
And with Jesus they will feast eternally.                

Wonderful Counselor

"But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:5, 6)

In Psalm 13 David expresses His deep discouragement to God. He seems to blame God for why he is so down to the point of feeling he's at death's door step. He writes in verses 1-4: "How long, O Lord ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. (Psalm 13:1-4).

We can view these words as a complaint that David brings before God, but we can also see in this complaint David's recognition that the answer to the anguish in his soul is found in God. We also see that the anguish that he is experiencing was not only due to his circumstances, but also to what his own heart was telling him about his circumstances. In other words, he was listening to himself rather than God. He was zoned in on what was going on around him rather than looking to the God sitting on heavens throne above him. He was giving in to the weak counsels of his own heart, rather than trusting in the Wonderful Counsellor of Heaven.

To trust in the Wonderful Counsellor doesn't always mean that you will understand his ways, but that you trust in his worth. Because of who He is, He is worthy of our trust even when we can't understand his ways. This is what we see that David does in the end of Psalm 13. He trusted in the steadfast love of The Lord. As he turned his focus from what his heart was saying to who his Father is, namely love, his heart began to change. His heart changed from an attitude of resignation to rejoicing. As his heart began rejoicing his sour words before God turned to songs of praise to His God. Our sour words will also become songs of worship as we learn to turn from our weak counsel and trust in He who is called Wonderful Counsellor.