On the way home as I was still thinking about this word and what the Lord delights in and what I ought to delight myself in, I was listening to a sermon on the radio and the pastor was talking about obedience to parents and how God blesses with long life. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just really feel like I want to see Him face to face... not at all in the suicidal way... I just long to see Him and to be complete in Him. Long life sometimes seems like it is just delaying us getting to see Him, but you know... He created us to delight in Him right now. We are to take great pleasure in all that we have in Christ including the physical blessings of life and relationships and even the financial blessings and the things He has entrusted to us. It is not wrong to find joy in physical blessings, but that must never be the focal point of our delight. God must always be the center of our delight. God created Eve to take delight in His creation of wonderful fruit in the garden... but her delight in the creation was stronger than her delight in the Creator. In order to know what I ought to delight in, I ought to know what God delights in.
God delights in sacrifices and in obedience. He delights in blessing His children. He delights in the steps of a godly man. He delights in justice. He delights in those who walk in blamelessness. He delights in those that are faithful. He delights in wise words spoken at the right time. He delights in those that fear Him. He delights in those He has chosen for His purposes. God delights in loyalty and in our knowledge of Him. He delights in unchanging love.
That right there is a beautiful picture of God--He gave all freely, He blesses us infinitely, He sent His Son to earth and demonstrated godly living, He is always completely just, He has never once sinned, He is completely faithful, He speaks and does the right thing at the right time without failing even once, He love accomplishing His Father's will, He is loyal in every regard, He is one with the Father, His love never changes.
I will glory in my Redeemer;
My life He bought, my love He owns.
I have no longings for another;
I'm satisfied in Him alone.
What a marvelous thing it is that the God of all the universe can stoop to such a low level as to delight in me. Who am I? I'm just a passing vapor... but He chooses to delight in me.
My proper response to this is to delight myself in Him. Part of that is the delight myself in all the things that He delights in. On top of that, I am to delight myself in the place of His dwelling. I am to delight in reverencing His name. I am to delight in knowing His law and to meditate on it day and night. I am to delight in His blessings... even prosperity. I am to delight in doing God's will. I am to delight myself in His consolations. I am to study God's works and delight in them. I am to delight in the commandments of the Lord knowing that they are not burdensome. I am to delight in His statutes. I am to delight also in the path of obedience to His commandments... not just the end result. We are to delight in God's ways knowing that they are higher and better than our own. We are to delight in those that we lead and discipline. We are to delight in the work that God enables us to do. We are to delight in knowing His ways. We are to delight in the reality of the nearness of God. We are to delight in the Lord for who He is. We are to delight in His words.
I think this really sums up how we ought to live:
Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, as a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. They ask Me for just decisions, they delight in the nearness of God.God, give us this heart for You. Put in us new desires. Fix in us Thy humble home. Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed, bruise in us the serpent's head. Adam's likeness now efface, stamp Thine image in its place; Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love. God, cause my delight to be wholly in You. Let my delight in earthly things point me only back to true delight in You as the giver of every good and perfect thing. Draw near to me as I draw near to You. Give me ever increasing delight in Your ways. Grant joy in obedience. Make me delight in the things that You delight in and hate the things that You hate. Use my delight to spur others toward love and good works. Be to me the central focus of all my delight.I long to hear Your words of delight in me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Make me Your servant today. I long to hear Your words of delight in me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Make me Your servant today.
8 comments:
Hi! Came across your blog whilst I was searching for some bible verse meaning. Fellow Christian, and wanted to ask what you meant by: "delighting in...even prosperity"? Thanks, and blessings. Amanda
Hi Amanda,
To answer your question: Sometimes, we see all the needs around us... children hungry and suffering from poverty for example... and we can feel like it is sinful to take joy in our abundant riches. But, I think it is clear from scripture that God wants us to enjoy His blessings to the fullest... not to ignore those that are suffering, but to delight in the blessings because they are from Him. Just like we want those receiving gifts from us to delight in what they have been given and use them wisely, God wants us to delight in His gifts and use them for His glory.
Hi Daniel,
that is an interesting way of looking at it. I would think that "in the flesh", it wouldn't be too hard to delight in prosperity. Yet yes, when there is so much need..it can be hard to accept it from the Lord; probably this is part of delighting in His graciousness - of what we do not deserve.
Prosperity also reminded me of this awesome article at http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/can-god-spread-a-table-in-the-wilderness Hope you a good meal out of it too. blessings.
I think we can see patterns in our lives similar to those that we see in the people of Israel... God blessed them, they forgot God, God punished them, God restored them back to Himself. This is the result of delighting in the blessings of God without giving God the glory for those blessings. It is when I say, "I worked hard for this money and earned this...", rather than, "God, in You I live, move and breathe. You gave me the ability to work and blessed me with this job." It's a heart of thankfulness rather and a self-dependent attitude.
1 Corinthians 4:7 is a good reminder to me: "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?"
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and that blog post.
God bless,
Daniel Osborne
You're welcome, glad to be able to share posts that I find inspiring. Israel's responses to blessing and prosperity in forgetting their God as the source of provision - how alike us as humans!
I was talking with a friend about another John Piper article too related to this all. Above all, God wants to be delighted in for who He is.. not because of what He does for us. (even what appears not to be "carnal" blessings - like salvation and grace).
I quote,
"What if the bottom line of what makes us happy is not God himself, but God’s attention, God’s praise? If that is the bottom line, then we are not delighting in God, but only using delight in God to get commendations. That would be devastating. When God’s delight in us lures us to delight in being delighted in, we are ceasing to do the very thing God delights in." (John Piper)
To me, though this seems quite far off from where I am, it is still really eye-opening and amazing!
Sorry for the long reply but had to share! & Blessed new year.
Actually..I'm not sorry for the long reply - it doesn't say anything in the bible about answers "too long". Lol. Even Proverbs 15:23 perhaps. So there!
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