He is my Delight

Recently I spent some time on vacation.  I spent hours and hours in prayer as I looked out onto the water.  So peaceful and tranquil, calming to the soul.  But sometimes a boat would pass at full speed, ignoring the “no wake zone” signs, and the water would be churned into a tumultuous froth, soon lapping at and spilling over the barriers along the shore.

As the Lord had been dealing with me for several days on the issue of disobedience and it’s destructive effects, the churning of the water seemed to mirror the troubled waters of a disobedient soul.  Churning, surging against boundaries, restless and unsettled.  There is no peace to a disobedient believer.

As I tearfully reflected on these things, to my shame I realized that my own disobedience exposed a lack of trust in the Lord and my lack of the fear of the Lord.  It is no small matter to disobey the Lord of the entire universe and Master of my soul.  The more I thought on these things, the more grievous it became to me, until I thought I would rather do anything than disobey Him.  And I wondered why I had not cared more to do what pleased Him than what pleased me.  Now I understood the unrest that I could not shake.  I was living in the wake zone.

Psalm 23 says that He leads me beside the still waters.  This is the blessing of a life of obedience.  Still waters are for the obedient.  All others will live in the wake zone, continually turbulent, disturbed and pounding against the boundaries.

The Lord has required obedience of His people, but He has made an obedient life to be a glorious, serene life.  When we can learn to trust that all His ways are good, and higher than our ways, and that Romans 8:28 is always true, then we will be those who experience the  still waters of an obedient life.