What The Lord Said To Me Today
12/03/2000
PERSONAL DEVOTION
Delight


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The word "delight" is in my spirit today. I began singing a song entitled "I Delight In Thee", which caused me to look into the word of the Lord, concerning this subject.

Delight is mutual. We are our Lord's delight, and we are to delight ourselves in the Lord.

Psalm 37:4-Our Delight:

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 43:4-Once again, our delight:

"Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight."

Proverbs 8:27-God's delight

"I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind."

The American Heritage Dictionary gives this definition of "delight": Something that gives great pleasure or joy; to please greatly. For those who would strip our relationship with God of all emotion, this certainly flies in the face of that attitude. God is after our feelings. He wants us to take great pleasure and joy in his presence and in our service to him. He feels this way about us. It is written, "he delights in his people".

God is not looking for forced service, rendered by teeth clenching, swearing slaves. No, he speaks through Isaiah that "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." Willingness is every bit as important as obedience to the Lord. He examines the heart.

A very serious set of verses, laid out in the law concerning blessings and cursings, gives the Lord's proper place of importance for joy and gladness.

Deuterononmy 28:45-47

"Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD, thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things."

What are we to do then? Where does it rest with us? We are such a sliding mess of emotions. We move from highs to lows so quickly. And we differ from person to person. Some of us are very emotional, others stoic. Some of this type of joy and pleasure is so fleeting. Look at Jonah, for example, sitting under that gourd tree, with such great happiness, and then, to see his sadness at it's withering. We are just that silly too.

Yes, I personally believe that service to the Lord can and should express itself in outwardly observable joy, with grins, shouts, leaps and expressions of exuberance. More importantly though, I believe, is the under-girding joy and pleasure that should be there, from the Lord, to sustain as through temporal times that leave us grumbling.

I did not get my way today. My head is hurting and my stomach is upset. My children woke me early and my eyes are burning. I have felt out of sorts all day. My football team even won and that did not improve my mood, and yet, with all these temporal irritations, I delight myself in the Lord, and say to my soul......"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

Stephen L. Bening
a servant and prophet of our Lord Jesus Christ

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