Read this blog post by a friend this morning, and just had to share. This post with written by a veteran Canadian Biblical Counselor-Karen Gaul from Stratford, ON. You can check out her blog here; http://gracebiblicalcounselling.net/ May His truth become more and more our daily reality, His Person our delight.... Read, enjoy, learn and grow along with me....
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”. Really? I know that is what it says, but my life has not changed any. My problems and struggles are just as bad as they were before I started working on delighting in the Lord. Really? There are no cattle in the stalls and no grapes on the vine…where is God? My suffering has not changed, my relationships are still broken, my kids still aren’t following God, and I am still anxious and fearful.
I wonder if we have taken that verse and twisted it somehow. I think we often read it “delight yourself in the Lord and thenHe will give you the desires of your heart.” In other words we press into the Lord for a bit and then hope that He will give us what we want. I am sure that anyone reading this will say “no, that’s not what I am thinking.” Really? Then why do we give up so easily, why do we stop trusting and start doubting God’s goodness or even His presence? Why are we so frustrated when things just simply don’t SEEM to be changing?
Are we delighting in what God can give to us or are we actually delighting in Him alone? That is a huge question for each of us. We like our life to be easy and pain free and healthy and financially set and relationally peaceful. Where in all of Scripture do we get that promise?
I know it is what our culture pursues and promises. Our culture would scream at us regularly to “go with what feels right”. Our culture would scream at us that we are entitled, that we deserve (you fill in the blank). We live in a culture that loves to put a world spin on the Word of God, making sin easy and making seeing a big picture of who God really is nearly impossible. Living in North America we live in a constant war zone for having our so called needs met. We are far too easily deceived.
Jesus delighted in His Father. That had nothing to do with His circumstances, or His feelings or His relationships. His relationship with His Dad went above and beyond those things. He had a proper picture of who His Father was, and that shaped how He did his life here.
“Consider the absolute bliss and harmony that Jesus has always enjoyed with the Father and the Holy Spirit.” Winston Smith in Marriage Matters.
It went beyond ease and comfort and financial security and peace to a relationship with His Father that somehow super ceded all creature comforts, and He didn’t challenge or dispute or reinterpret what God the Father might be doing or saying.
We pursue success, bigger and better purchases, acquiring more things thinking that will give us delight and we get busy in our churches, attend Bible studies, maybe even lead one, attend church, but even there we are pursuing satisfaction or praise, or hoping it will make us feel better or make life easier somehow.
During the early years of our marriage I was pursuing delight in getting pregnant and when it didn’t happen I was devastated until I realized that having a child would not ultimately give me what I thought it would, although it seemed at the time that it would satisfy me completely.
C.S. Lewis wrote: Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
“You may feel that Jesus is no match for the dreams and desires …, that to live without those dreams and desires would be unbearable. To think that Jesus himself is the grandest prize of all …may seem silly to you. You’re too easily satisfied. Whatever pleasure you have set your sights on pales in comparison with what God offers us in His Son. Jesus isn’t a consolation prize…He’s the grand prize.” Winston Smith Marriage Matters
When Ruth got out of her mourning attire (Ruth 3) and prepared to go and claim her kinsman redeemer she was focusing on being obedient no matter how it turned out. She made herself vulnerable, she prepared herself and she went to him seeking his protection and his provision, not only for a moment but for the rest of her life.
That is how it can be with us. If we see our desperation, realizing that outside of ourselves we can’t amount to much, if we see our Kinsman Redeemer as one who will also provide protection and provision, if we are willing to claim Him then nothing else really matters. He is the One who saves us from ourselves, He becomes all we need for life and godliness. He becomes our great Delight.
Making It Personal
- What might change in your life if you really started pursuing a living relationship with Jesus, and found delight in Him alone?
- If you really believed that God’s greatest good for your life is to make you more like his Son how might that change your attitude toward your circumstances?
- What might delighting in the Lord look like in your life when your circumstances are not favourable?
“Dear God help us want just You above all else!”
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