PURPOSE OF HEART
I feel encouraged to say something about purposing in our hearts to do what is right before God. I feel encouraged by what our brother has brought before us. While we all have to purpose in our hearts to do what is right in terms of pleasing God, a young couple setting forth in married life together have a wonderful opportunity to purpose to do what is right, in seeking to please the Lord in their lives individually and their life together as a household.
What you see in this scripture is that God comes in when we make right commitments. Daniel made a right commitment, and this book is a wonderful history of how God helped him. We can look at many aspects of Daniel’s life that are well known, such as interpreting dreams and facing the lions’ den. We also read how he continued (Dan.1:21). Continuation was a great feature in Daniel’s life. He set out, in his privileged position, to do what was right in the eyes of God, and that is a wonderful commitment for a believer to make – to do what is right, not in our own strength, not by strength of character, or will, or natural ability or anything like that; but seeking divine help to be pleasurable here to our absent Lord.
I would commend to our young couple the thought that, as they set up life together, they have that opportunity to commit themselves, as they already have committed themselves to the Lord in the breaking of bread and in many other aspects of happy fellowship. But now as together, they have that opportunity to commit themselves, just as this young man Daniel did, and to set themselves for what is to come. How quickly blessing comes in. God has a great interest in those who seek to do what is right, who commit themselves to Him, commit themselves to the Lord Jesus, and draw on the resource of the Holy Spirit. It is all available to help them, to sustain and support them. Soon we see that God granted Daniel favour. What a wonderfully confirming matter it must have been for Daniel, that his exercise about the king’s delicate food was so quickly blessed. I think we can all say that, in our own simple experience, God comes in for us when we seek to be pleasurable to Him. This young man Daniel did just that from the outset.
In this day in which we find ourselves, there is a great need for us all to commit ourselves, and perhaps, recommit ourselves in a fresh way, to the Lord Jesus, using purpose of heart in that sense. Christianity is a heart matter, by and large. It is a wonderful thing to have that purpose of heart, to be set to do what is right and to realise it, not in our own strength but because divine support comes in from God to encourage us and to bless us. What pleasure it must have given to heaven to see this young man who was in what may have looked like a position of worldly favour, but he turned his back largely on all of that and sought to please God. There is an opportunity for us all, an opportunity for our young couple as they set up in married life together, to please the Lord – He would come in and bless that in each one of us. But I particularly commend it to our young couple as they set up their house together in Edinburgh, that it may be for a blessing for them. I am sure that every commitment they make to the Lord will prove prosperous.
May we be encouraged, beloved brethren, by these words, for His name’s sake.
Word at a marriage meeting, Witney
1 September 2017
D.H. Marshall