Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunday, October 10, 2010 - A Perfect Ten

(Sorry this is late. I had a wicked virus that wiped me out from the middle of the night until just a few moments ago.) 




I remember watching the 1976 Montreal Olympics when Nadia Comanechi scored the first-ever perfect 10 in any women's gymnastics event. And, just because she could, she earned three gold medals. She was my age and my hero. Nadia's performances inspired gymnast Mary Lou Retton to take up gymnastics and Mary Lou, in turn, was the first American female gymnast to earn a gold medal in the all-around. Both girls were spunky, committed and determined.


As Christians, we're already perfect tens because the Judge gives us Jesus' score instead of the one we earn trying to follow the law. After that score of 10, it's up to each of us to follow God's coaching for a godly life.


"Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Psalm 37:3-6


Notice the arrangement of the commands in these verses. 
Trust . . . do good . . . dwell . . . enjoy . . . delight . . . commit . .  . trust. 

A life that's a 10 in God's book begins with trusting the Lord and ends in the same trust, no matter what happened during the day. Trust is the only command repeated in the verses, showing us its importance in God's eyes.    


Trusting embraces two acts of obedience: "do good" and "commit your way to the Lord." I love proactive commands. There's no need to wait to obey them: we can do good and we can commit everything we'll do to the Lord each day.  In the center of it all are "dwell," "enjoy" and "delight." Live, laugh, love. People who try to live, laugh and love without first trusting God and obeying Him are bound to fail. But those of us who are spunkily committed and determined to win the gold, are already on our way. Today is 10/10/10 and you and I are already winners.


Dear Father, thank you for seeing us as winners, for awarding and rewarding any discipline or commitment with Your beam of approval. Thank You for calling us to spend twice as much effort on trusting You as we do serving You. Thank You that the call to live, laugh and love is biblical and doesn't just make a pleasant plaque.  


In the name of Jesus who lived and loved and surely, who laughed!

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