In the Word: Rejoicing the Heart (Part 1)

I sat on a worn armchair in my living room, my head hung down with sorrow, and an ache in my heart that I felt nothing could possibly heal. I had not opened my Bible in what felt like quite a long time. I didn’t want to. I wanted to fill the void of loss with other things, or simply sit in the sorrow. My second daughter had just died. Could God’s Word meet me in the utter darkness that surrounded me? Would I let it? Would I let Him?

My husband, Kevin, came over and wrapped his arm around me tenderly saying, “I think we should read the Bible together.” The tears that had been brimming at the surface gushed over without warning, and I simply said, “I can’t. I can’t.” Part of me didn’t want to hear what God might want to say to my pain and sorrow, part of me was just so mad and angry, and part of me wondered if the Bible would contain the life-giving words I thought they were supposed to hold. I let the jumble of my emotions come out, until finally, like Peter, I said, “Where else is there to go? I know His words are the only place that hold life” (John 6:68).

I knew in those moments of such acute sorrow and loss that God’s Word still held life, power, and hope. I knew there was nowhere else to go but to Him (and I had tried a thousand other ways). I knew His promises were true even when they didn’t feel true, or when I didn’t know how they would be fulfilled. That day when Kevin pulled out his Bible was a turning point for me in my grief—choosing to turn to God’s Word for life, regardless of my feelings.

I wish I could tell you that all of a sudden my heart was rejoicing in God’s Word, but that was not immediately true. I had many questions for God, doubts about Him and how He worked. I was mad and angry and just so deeply sad. Often times we approach God’s Word wanting to feel something, searching for verses that will fill the voids we think need to be filled in our hearts. But God wants to do something even better as we turn to His Word. He wants us to come to know who He is. He wants us to know and understand His ways. He wants us to wrestle with our preconceived notions about Him—the questions that His Word stirs in our hearts—so that we would know Him deeper than we ever had before. He wants us to know His love, written through every page and story of His Word, so that it would radically change how we view life, our circumstances, our sorrow, our joys, and our future.

The psalmist says, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 119:8a). What are the “precepts” of the Lord and why do they rejoice the heart? God’s precepts are His ways, meant to lead us to life and joy. As we come to know His ways and learn to live in light of them, we will find true and lasting joy. Thus, our hearts can rejoice not only when we live in light of His commandments, but also when we see them as good and right.

We can easily think of “commandments” or “precepts” as a list of rules (i.e. the ten commandments). However, if we think of our heavenly Father teaching His children how to live, we find that it is so much more than rules and commandments. They are a picture of a loving Father who wants what is best for His children, knows what is best for His children, and wants to lead us to the true life and joy that is found in Him alone. He lays out how to find that life and joy through His Word.