God’s Delight in us &

our Delight in Him

 

DELIGHT!!  What brings great pleasure, extreme satisfaction, or a deep desire into your life?  Is it one of your favorite people?  How about a preferred sight or place?  It may be an especially delicious food.  These are a few examples of what may delight us.  As children of God, may we also always find delight in that which is spiritual.  The scriptures reveal to us what brings delight to our Heavenly Father, and in turn guides us in finding our delight in Him.  Let’s consider these two perspectives of delight - God’s delight and our delight.

 

God delights in His children

As Christians, our desire is to honor God by living in a way which brings pleasure and delight to Him.  One primary action that pleases the LORD is our prayers to Him.  “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8).  We see then that not only do prayers have benefits for us, they also have a strong impact upon God.  He is delighted every time you (as an upright Christian) pray to Him.  God also delights in obedience.  An example which illustrates this is when King Saul was told to totally destroy the Amalekites and their livestock.  Rather, Saul saved the king alive, along with the best of the sheep and oxen to offer as sacrifices.  God’s response to this was spoken through Samuel in I Samuel 15:22, “… Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice …”    Each time you  obey the voice of the LORD, you bring pleasure and delight to Him.   The LORD also delights in lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness as described in Jeremiah 9:24, “… let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these I delight, says the Lord.”

These are three core attributes of God.  However, they are more than simply passive qualities.  God truly delights in exercising and extending His lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness to you and me.  How do we respond to receiving great blessings from the LORD?  It is one thing to delight in the blessings received; it is more to delight in and be devoted to the One from whom we received them.  There were those of Jesus’ time who followed Him because of the food He provided (John 6:26), but were not dedicated to truly seeking Him.  They sought after the blessings, but not the Source of them.  Our goal is to long for and draw pleasure from more than the blessings themselves, but plant our true delight in our Father and Savior from whom all blessings flow.

 

Our Delight in God

We see that spiritual delight involves not only God’s pleasure in His people and righteousness, but also our pleasure in God and His will.  Prayer and obedience were previously mentioned.  Not only does God delight when we direct these toward Him, but they are also ways we demonstrate delight in our Heavenly Father.  Another outstanding way we delight in God is by delighting in the law of the LORD.  “… his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2).  This theme is repeated numerous times by David and other writers throughout the Psalms.  The 119th Psalm especially calls for our attention to increase our appreciation of God’s word.  The more reverence we have for the word of God, the more delight and joy we will find in it.  Two verses speak of inclining our heart toward God.  “Incline my heart to your testimonies…” (Psalm 119:36).  “I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the very end” (Psalm 119:112).  To incline our heart is to cause it to long for (deeply desire) something.  To incline our heart to God is to long for (deeply desire) His word and will.  His grace, along with our own willingness and cooperation, guides and inclines our hearts toward God.  “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure” (Psalm 119:162).  “Great peace have those who love Your law…” (Psalm 119:165).  “I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight” (Psalm 119:174).  This great treasure, peace, and longing for salvation mentioned in these three passages are both causes for and results of our delight in the LORD.  “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).  One telltale way to show how much a person delights in the LORD is to list some of the top desires of his or her heart.  As we delight in the LORD, our mind and conscience will be trained to desire what is after the will of God.  Therefore, these are not frivolous desires which are promised to be fulfilled.  Rather, these desires are also after God’s heart and will be filled by Him. 

 

Conclusion

“I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).  We have considered a fundamental message of the Bible - God delights in us as we delight in Him.  One of the reasons the Bible is so valuable to us is that within its pages God reveals what pleases and delights Him.  We learn what is true not only in theory and principle, but also in reality and practice.    Equipped with this knowledge, we then incline our hearts, conform our lives, and worship our LORD.  In doing so, we delight in Him, and He delights in us.  We plant God’s word in our hearts, so that His will blooms in our lives.

            

 

The Gospel Message  September  2006  

by Kevin Ferguson