Delighting in the Lord

By: Monique Smith

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, ESV).

Have you ever had a person you just LOVED to be around? You knew that whenever you went around them they would do something silly and have you laughing in .5 seconds! If you’re as goofy as I am, you would definitely take delight in that person and put them at the top of your priority list to hang out with frequently for laughs and a chill time. Delight means to enjoy, appreciate, take joy and experience pleasure from something. God has commanded each of us, in His divine Word, to delight in Him! To think and meditate on God and just enjoy who He is! Not what He can do for you or what He can give to you, but to just sit back and get excited about Him! Now let’s practice, I want you to stop what you’re doing and think of a moment you’ve had with God.

Okay, I’ll share my moment with you all. This one is funny. There was one day, I was in the kitchen getting a cup of water to drink, as I put the cup to my mouth, somehow, out of nowhere, the entire cup slipped UPWARDS out of my hands and splashed on my face, all over my shirt, and on my socks (how many of you dislike wet socks?! Lol), immediately, I looked up at God (actually I could’ve looked to my left or right since He’s omnipresent : )….but anyways, I looked up at God and just started laughing because I knew He was tryna clown me! I knew He was up in heaven rolling! And it was all good! I just laughed and took extreme joy and delight in God during that moment. Like how cool is that! The God of the universe, took the time to joke with a little “spec of dust” like me. That small moment is just to get your brain jogging about moments that can be used to encourage your delight in the Lord. Taking delight in someone doesn’t mean that the person always gives you things. It just means you genuinely enjoy them regardless of what happens when you all are together. However, in addition to that simple command that God gives us to delight in Him, He does us one better. He gives you an incentive to do the very thing that should be the easiest thing to do, especially since He created you. God tells us that if we delight, find joy, get hype about Him, then He will give US the desires of our heart! That’s crazy! God is always treating us a million times better than we can ever think to be treated! I really like the end of this verse also because of the underlying “twist” that is encoded in it. God is offering to give us the desires of our heart because after delighting in Him for so long, our desires will automatically line up with His desires for us! How great is it to be on the same page as God! Ah! Wonderful! This scripture is also a beneficial way that we can check where our relationship with God is standing. If you can think over your life and think about the things you are praying for that you want or “need” and God isn’t fulfilling them no matter how much you pray or fast, then you really might want to check how much you are delighting in Him. *Pause * No lie, I really wanted to stop typing that last sentence because I just got SO convicted! Wow! There are definitely some things I have been praying about that I reallllllly want to happen and they haven’t been happening even though I think they are good things and would be considered a great blessing if it happens. But that goes to show me that I am not taking full delight in my Father! To me, in writing it sounds so easy and in thought it seems easy, but practically it will really take some work at first to really sit and delight in the Lord always. But I’m up for the challenge, are you?

Prayer: Dear daddy, thank you so much for your love, grace, peace, and mercy. Thank you for the Bible and your holy spirit living in me. God I just want to value you more in my life and reflect on your more throughout my day. I need you to help me focus more on you. I love you. In Jesus name, amen.