"Given Over to God"

"My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times." (Psalms 119:20)

 Whether we agree with this or not, there is something to be said for having God on our side and not against us. At some point, we all need to come to terms with this reality: You are not going to win by doing it your own way! Here we go again with the basic law of resistance, that it is going to hurt! When Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you," it was not so that we could try and do anything on our own. Just as oxen are yoked together in order to not go separate ways, so are we to be yoked together with Christ. Without Him leading and guiding us, we are surely going to get off track. That said, even if we do get off track, we are never are able to get too far away that the Lord can't grab us back. It is the law of grace! I heard someone say the other day, grace always comes before mercy. I had to think about that long and hard, because I have always thought it was the other way around, that first we receive mercy, and then He gives us grace. But if you stop and think about what has taken place, God gives us what we do not deserve, before He takes away what we deserve. I did not deserve for Jesus to die for my sins; as a matter of fact, before I even knew any better, I did even want or ask for His mercy. God had to give me something I did not deserve before I could ask Him for mercy: He had to give me knowledge and grace. Only then could I even realize my need for mercy! In that line of thinking, I can actually realize that it was God, not I, that changed my heart in the first place. My heart would have never changed on its own; my heart needed God to show me what I could not see on my own. This is the hunger David is trying to get across here, that hunger we must have to be enlightened to the "judgments" of God. Simply put, it was God that chose us, not us that chose Him; so why on earth would I ever want my own judgments to be in control any time or any place! Here his why his soul breaks, because it hurts every single time it goes against God's judgments...

"I slept, but my heart was awake, when I heard my lover knocking and calling: "Open to me, my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." But I responded, "I have taken off my robe. Should I get dressed again? I have washed my feet. Should I get them soiled?" My lover tried to unlatch the door, and my heart thrilled within me. I jumped up to open the door for my love, and my hands dripped with perfume. My fingers dripped with lovely myrrh as I pulled back the bolt. I opened to my lover, but he was gone! My heart sank. I searched for him anywhere. I called to him, but there was no reply. The night watchmen found me as they made their rounds. They beat and bruised me and stripped off my veil, those watchmen on the walls. Make this promise, O women of Jerusalem -If you find my lover, tell him I am weak with love." (SONG OF SONGS 5:2-8) NLT