Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and he will provide for you what you desire the most. – Psalm 37:4
Do you take delight in the Lord?
What does it mean to take delight in the Lord?
By dictionary definition to take delight in something means to enjoy something, take pleasure in it, find satisfaction, pay adoration or find something fascinating.
The bible encourages us to find fascination with the Lord. We are called to fascinate ourselves with the ways, word and wisdom of God.
God calls us into relationship with Him. But it requires our full attention and absolute devotion. Are you willing to give God your everything?
I love this quote by Lysa Terkeurst: Our attention is like a magnifying glass – whatever we place it on becomes larger and more consuming of our time and energy.
Where is your attention focused?
What happens when we delight ourselves in the Lord?
When we begin to delight ourselves in the Lord, we begin to see Him in everything. We begin to see the fingerprints of Christ all over our life – even in the most simplest of days. I believe that God does some of His best work in our hearts, in the mundane of ordinary life. When God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, Moses was just going on about his day. He was tending to the sheep, going about his business and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush.
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. Exodus 3:1-3
When we delight ourselves in the Lord, our perspective changes. All of a sudden we begin to view things differently, we begin to see things differently. Our attitudes change towards things and situations. What once bothered us, no longer does. God sometimes brings peace or sometimes He brings healing of our broken hearts. When we submit our lives to God and we start fascinating ourselves with the ways, word and wisdom of God – something miraculous happens in our hearts. Our focus shifts from a place of self-sufficiency to a place of Christ-sufficiency. Our hearts go from being self-centred to being Christ-centred. Our perspective changes. Our view changes. Our hearts change to look more like Jesus.
When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we no longer get discouraged by our sufferings but we begin to persevere in Gods purpose. His grace empowers us to push through the pressures we face. His grace gives us the passion and power to persist onwards.
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! – Romans 5:1-5
How do we delight ourselves in the Lord?
- Fascinate yourselves with the WAYS of God – Proverbs 4:25
- Fascinate yourselves with the WISDOM of God – Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10
- Fascinate yourselves with the WORD of God – Psalm 86:11
What happens when we take delight in the Lord?
We begin to see Gods breakthrough. We begin to see Gods hand move. We begin to see Gods workings in our lives.
This is why I wait upon you, expecting your breakthrough, for your word brings me hope. – Psalm 130:5
Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and he will provide for you what you desire the most. Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly! – Psalm 37:4-5
As we make God the utmost delight and pleasure of our lives – we will begin to see Him move. The promise of making God our delight is that we will begin to know Him better, we will begin to hear His direction and we will begin to understand His ways. The bible promises us that if we seek His face, we will find Him – if we seek Him with all our hearts.
Do you long to know Him better?
What are some of the things that keep you from spending time with God?
Is God the delight of your life?
What can you do today to make Him the delight and pleasure of your life?
In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. – Jeremiah 29:12-14