May 9, 2025 Devo

Growing up, I was taught that being a Christian was about following “the rules.” Some of the rules were simply commandments that the Bible taught. You know, don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, that kind of stuff. But just as important were the rules about things that we were told were “sin” that weren’t mentioned in the Bible. Things like going to movies, playing cards, listening to rock music, and dancing. Pretty much anything that was fun was going to send you to Hell. So we obeyed God. But it was out of FEAR. What took me a long time to learn growing up with all the legalism was that Christianity wasn’t about rules. It was about a RELATIONSHIP with God. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was in all of Scripture, He said it was to “love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” In fact, He said if we would focus on loving God like that and loving others as well, the rules would take care of themselves. That’s because we would be obeying God out of LOVE.
That’s what David is getting at here in our verse for today. Following God wasn’t an obligation for him. It was a privilege. He LIKED to do things that made God happy. That’s how love is. When he wrote Psalms of praise to tell God how awesome he thought He was, they came out of the overflow of his love for God. When he helped raise money to build a temple, it wasn’t “one more stupid fund-raising event.” It was the opportunity to do something for The One who had done so much for him. The Scriptures were SACRED to David. They were God revealing Himself to him. And David thought that was pretty awesome. So he read them constantly. Not because he had to, but because he WANTED to. It all flowed from David’s HEART. Just like it should from ours.
God wants your heart. He wants you to be as passionately in love with Him as He is with you. He wants to be with you, and He wants you to want to be with Him. If you’re following Him out of obligation or fear, you’re completely missing the point. He wants your love, not your compliant behavior. He wants what you do in your life to flow out of what He has poured into yours. Tyrants want slaves. Fathers want children. Take off the shackles of legalism, and let God write His Name upon your heart. Seek to love Him and those around you as well, and all “the rules” will take care of themselves. Oh yeah, and by the way. David DANCED! That’s God’s Word for you today.