Delight in the Lord
Psalms 37:4-5
“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
Delight in the Lord
Human beings are constantly pursuing things that we believe are going to make us happy. We cannot escape this because this is how we function. We make choices every second of every day that we think are going to determine our best mood. There are a lot of times we choose the best situation of two negatives in order salvage some happiness. This SALT post is going to explore the pursuits of sinful pleasures of happiness compared to the joy derived from a relationship with God through Jesus.
Basically, set an object in front of you. The object can be anything. Anything can be material and non-material, a person, place, thing, situation, circumstance, performance of self and of others. You can add anything into each category. What are the promises that each object is communicating to you? Is it telling you that you will be wiser? Will it make you feel good? Will it make you look good in front of others? Is it promising to boost your confidence? Does the object promise life, joy, peace, and well-being? What happens to you when you can’t have the object? Do you get angry, sad, depressed or anxious? Does it drive you to seek alternatives to help suppress the feelings of not obtaining the object? What sacrifice do you make to obtain the object? How much money do you spend on the object? How much do you talk about the object? Do you enjoy others who share the same love for the object? Do you encourage each other to continue to strive to obtain the object? Do you try to convince others that they will be happy if they have this object? Do you lovingly speak to the object? Do you sing about the object? Do you obey the objects commands and demands? Are you eager to get more of your object?
Now, you have two choices for your primary object which is your source of joy. Anything in this world is one option. The other option is the Lord Jesus Christ who provides us with everything in this world. This is the choice that every single believer makes on a moment by moment basis. Our choice is either to delight in the Lord or delight in the lie of sin? Sin is delighting primarily in anything but God. We believe lies when we faithfully pursue happiness in anything else but Christ.
Psalms 37:4-5 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.” Do what? He will make you joyful in Him. He will make His goodness visible to you through His Word and His Spirit and you will be blessed if you truly desire to delight in Him. Your heart will sing with joy that you know Him, the creator and sustainer of the universe who is compassionate, loving, merciful, kind, just and has made Himself known to you. Pursuing joy in the Lord should be our number one pursuit always as Paul says in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” It is commanded in scripture and with the command comes help.
To rejoice in the Lord always is impossible without God. Paul also says in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” What is the good pleasure of God? It is to enjoy Him! God the Father planned for your joy to be in Him through the Lord Jesus Christ empowered by His Spirit. The whole being of God is at work in order for you to enjoy Him. Our job is to rely 100% on His Spirit to enjoy our God with the central object of our focus being the Lord Jesus Christ. Our greatest fear as followers of Christ should be a lack of desire in pursuing God as the ultimate source of our satisfaction in all things!
We need to pray that God would enable us to joyfully pursue a relationship with Him through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is our greatest battle and it is a battle but we have the greatest military ever. Do not lose heart as Jesus has already won the battle. We get to enjoy reward of the victory by freely pursuing Him with no consequence. Let’s enjoy the victory. It is one where we need to use all the resources God has given us, prayer, His Word, and the body of believers. Let’s be filled with the Spirit as Paul tells us to be in Ephesians 5:18 by encouraging each other with the awesomeness of who God is and praying diligently that God would empower us to enjoy His goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ!
**Disclaimer: This post is for people who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If you do not follow Christ we urge you to think about what you just read. The only sin that is unforgiveable is not believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The term Lord means that He is owner and creator over all things. It also means that He governs the entire universe. Jesus is the Son of God. God in human flesh. He displays God perfectly and we can know Him by what is written about Him in the Bible. When we stop trusting in the things of this sinful world and put our trust in Jesus Christ who is the Lord of this world, He saves us from eternal punishment which is God’s anger poured out onto sinners for eternity. To follow Christ is the most important decision of your life. – John 3:16
