Psalm 119:34 Making it Fit

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your lawand obey it with all my heart.

Psalm 119:34

I'm not very fond of shopping for new clothes.

Oh, I like having new clothes. But when I go clothes shopping I'm remind that I don't have the money to buy just whatever I want. I'm also reminded that I'm not a kid any more so I shouldn't buy things that will make me look like a silly old man. I get wound up in my own mind, thinking about what my son will think of what I buy, or my wife, or my co-workers.

But worst of all, shopping for clothes reminds me I'm over-weight. For years I've been right at that dividing line where many of the clothes stop at the size just below mine, or if they have my size, there's only one style or color for me to get. But I'm also at the size where the Big & Tall section also doesn't have much for me, favoring people either bigger or taller than I am.

The worst part of shopping for clothes is when I know I have to get new clothes because I've outgrown the clothes in my closet. When I was 8, that was great. It's not so great at 60.

And so, even though I really could use two or three new pairs of pants, I only get one, telling myself I'll work on getting back down into the clothes I already have (and the ones in that box up on the shelf that's labeled CLOTHES TO SHRINK INTO.

Woe is me. That which I want to do is not what I end up doing, and that which I don't want to do any more is precisely what I know I'll end up doing.


Some of us approach the Word of God the way I approach clothes.

Your life habits have slipped a bit lately, so you avoid those parts of the scriptures you know won't fit the current you very well. Or your thoughts about certain topics have shifted somewhat because of the pressure of the world and the popular culture, so you work hard at finding a different way to think about what used to be clear and plain in the Bible, but now you need it to fit into your evolving way of thinking about the world.

The best way to keep from trying to force the Word into fitting your way of thinking, rather than the other way around, is to pray every time you open the Bible to read. Every time.

Let the one who wrote the Word help you to be changed by the Word as it disciplines you for godliness.

Lord, Give me understanding so I can be all in. Help me to push myself to let the Word change me, to make me strong in the faith. Pull me back, Lord, from trying to fit the Word into the way I want to live.