I Am Not At The Mercy of Externals

Psalm 37:4 in the NLT says this, “Take delight in the Lord and do good.  Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.”  In The Passion Translation it says it like this, “Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and He will provide for you what you desire the most.”

And the truth really is that we so often times neglect the taking “delight” in Him.  And it is the great reason why we experience disquiet and unrest.  Honestly and so typically the explanation of the absence of peace in our lives has to do less with the externals, and more to do with internals.  Not so much with what lies without, but what lies within our souls.

We can’t forever blame the changing circumstances or the faulty conditions of all that lies around us for the discontent in our lives.  At some point we have to say enough is enough and come to terms with the fact that it is our unregulated desires, our misaligned focus, our wrongly targeted affections that are what rob us of the peace Jesus died for us to experience.

My commentary says that, “we are feverish, not because of the external temperature, but because of the state of our own blood.”

We are called to “delight” ourselves in the Lord, or to “take delight” in the Lord.  And that is the only remedy for all disturbance of desires.  Rest, peace, joy, contentment… all comes from delighting in God, and refusing to be distracted by worldly cares and preoccupied with problems.

The word delight means this =  "to please greatly, to take great pleasure in, a high degree of enjoyment."

I had read it wrong for years, too.
“He will provide what I need” is how I saw it.
But I see it differently today.
When I DELIGHT in Him, and when I make Him the center of my desires, He is faithful to provide for me all that is connected to those right desires… and that is, of course, more of Him.

And so it’s not the absence of difficulties that brings peace.
It’s not the reduction of changing circumstances that deepens pleasure.
It’s my noncompliance to living reactionary to all that aims at inflicting pain.
It’s my unwillingness to be gravely affected by harsh winds purposed to shatter my hope and steal my joy.

I am not at the mercy of externals, my joy comes from the Lord; my peace comes from knowing Him and bring known by Him.

I will lay aside all temptations to be shaken by external conditions and stay keenly aware of my internal position.  I am a child of God and He will give me more of Him when I delight and desire for more of Him.