The Biblical Way to Thrive - Part 1

This blog and the ministry of Thrive are devoted to helping pastors, ministry leaders, and their families thrive. The reality is, due to ongoing challenges and difficulties, leaders frequently find themselves in a place where they would not say they are thriving.

However, just like the tree in Psalm 1, planted near the streams of water, with its green leaves and abundant fruit, God wants you to thrive. Get that. He wants you to be like this flourishing tree, and in this psalm He tells you how. The means of your thriving is found in His all-sufficient Scriptures. Specifically, your thriving is connected to your delighting in and meditating on His Word. In this article, we’ll focus on the idea of delighting and then address the idea of meditating in a future article.

What does it mean to delight in God’s law? How do you do that?

Recall that a number of Bible teachers have observed Psalm 1 functioning as an introduction to all the other psalms. What follows in the rest is David and other psalm writers crying out as they face great difficulties: “in distress” (4:1), “groaning” (5:1), “greatly troubled” (6:3), “put to shame” (25:3), “bowed down in mourning” (35:14), “fear and trembling come upon me” (55:5). What are we to do when we, like the psalmists, face these things? Do we have no prospect other than distress, groaning, and mourning?

No. Psalm 1 points the way where we will find God’s blessedness even when enduring great trials. We are told, “How blessed is the man,” even though he faces these terrible things, if his “delight is in the law of the LORD.” We have not been promised a life without affliction, but God has promised that He will give His comfort when we go through affliction: “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life” (Psalm 119:50).

First, something important about this delight needs to be pointed out, particularly for ministry leaders. It is what this delighting does not mean. It does not mean that the trials you’re encountering don’t afflict you deeply; or there is no temptation in the affliction for you to doubt God’s goodness; or that unlike others you simply soar above all your troubles. Very often and easily ministry leaders think they should be stronger when facing hardships and suffer less from them than do those who are less mature in the faith. That’s just not what we see in the Psalms or the rest of the Scriptures. Rather, we see even those of highest stature deeply affected by their trials and saying so openly.

For example, Psalm 119:50 states that “my comfort” comes not instead of “my affliction” but rather comes “in” my affliction. In Psalm 4 David cries out questioning God two times “how long…how long” will his distress go on. David isn’t only filled with praises; in Psalm 5 he is filled with groaning, but he directs his groaning to his King, pleading with Him to listen. His groaning lasts not for only one night but for many: “every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping” (Ps. 6:6). And don’t forget Satan’s thorn sent to harass the Apostle Paul which God did not remove or the bitter cup the Father allowed His Son to drink.

This delighting in God’s Word is not a joy we have because there is no pain to be felt. Rather it is a delighting that by faith says the promise contains a blessing greater than what the pain is capable of taking away. This is a truth that our LORD wants us to know is real. It is one that we need to rely on because there are valleys of suffering we will go through that we never imagined we would encounter, some that we cannot imagine God would ever allow. If you are in one of those now, then this is especially for you.

Here are three specific ways to delight in God’s Word even in your trial.

1. Delight in His Word even when the promise of His comfort or peace is far away. When your soul is writhing in the painful trial, any promise of good may be difficult to even think of at the present. But even if the promise is a long way off, by faith, hold onto that one lone thought of delight that it may be a long way out there, but it is coming. Like the child swept far from the beach on his raft who can’t even see the way to safety, hearing the sound of the beach patrol’s alarm means help may be far away but it is on the way.

2. Delight in His Word as lasting, eternal comfort. Whatever the trial is that you are enduring now, as horrible as it truly is, it will end. Even if the end won’t come until life on this earth is over, it will be over then. Part of Satan’s power in his lies is the hopelessness that there is no way out. But that is a lie. Delight in God’s promise found in Psalm 30:5 - “Weeping may tarry for the night (or many nights), but joy comes with the morning” (even though it isn’t this morning). There may only be a tiny thread of strength remaining in your faith, but even so use that tiny remaining bit to reach for the morning that will bring the joy. Dear soul, it will come.

3. Delight in His Word as delighting in God Himself. Whatever the painful thorn is, in its own way it is the loss of or harm done to some good gift God has given or you’ve hoped for. As wonderful as that lost or damaged gift is and as painful as it is to endure the loss, there is a satisfaction to be found that is deeper than the gift. It is the Giver of the gift. Delight in Him as in Psalm 16, “Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you’…The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” God is the inheritance. Even when other gifts are lost, the gift of God Himself will never be lost.