DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD

TUESDAY 11 JANUARY 2022

Delighting yourself in the Lord has an assured result or response from the Lord Himself. Simply put, if you're fond of taking delight in the Lord, the open and direct response from God Himself is to give you the desires of your heart. So today's topic is talking about us becoming a people of great appetite for the Lord.

Reference: Psalm 37:4 Amplified Bible (AMP) "Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart."

To delight is to please (someone) greatly and to gladden their heart with exuberant joy. However this is not exactly what the Psalmist is talking about here. In this context, the Psalmist says, "Delight yourself" in the Lord, not "delight in the Lord." Since there is a slight difference, he is not urging his readers to please God, rather he means "Enjoy the Lord" which is significant of rejoicing in Him, being confident in Him and thinking great thoughts of Him to the point that He truly satisfies your soul, mind and spirit. It also means to take advantage of God's grace, fear Him and find lasting pleasure in serving Him.

King David wrote this Psalm in his old age, having personally had an experiential knowledgebase denoting God's favour throughout His lifetime. So he was in ideal position to articulate and express our referenced Scripture due to his encounters. Remember that this same David delighted himself in the Lord by boasting in His name, and God easily gave him Goliath's head (see 1 Samuel 17:45-51). He enjoyed and served God with all His might and honoured Him in his deeds, such that God called him "a man after His own heart" (see 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). In fact, David so much delighted himself in the Lord to the point that he danced unashamedly in the public almost forgetting himself. The Bible says, "David Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might..." (see 2 Samuel 6:14-22).

Did you know that there are joyful and exceptional Christians who love and enjoy the Lord so much that they are easily full of His expressions? They don't know how to hide their feelings about God and they often resort to being thankful in the Lord. This means that human concerns have no control over their thoughts concerning God. The things of the Spirit have taken over their spirit and lips such that they are controlled and influenced by mind of Christ. This same Spirit constantly takes hold of or influences their divine experiences and positions them to obtain the desires and petitions of their hearts, whether or not they so much prayed about it. They don't need to be the "great" prayer warriors; they are just fond of their new and spiritual life in Christ. For this reason, anytime you rencounter them, they always turn out full of testimonies of God's goodness and mercy.

Beloved, delight yourself in the Lord. When you learn to let the thoughts and wisdom of God's goodness occupy every chamber of your mental space, He makes your perception of Him equal to your reality. Now this doesn't mean that as Christians, we can never encounter or be faced with negative thoughts. No! "To delight ourselves in the Lord" means that despite all kinds of spiritual and human thoughts, the profound continuity of our thoughts and mental stability is predicated, to a large degree, on God and His Word, or put in another way, on Biblical truths, principles and meditations.

So in spending life, delighting ourselves in the Lord does not indicate that God and His knowledge are the only contemplation we engage as Christians; it simply points to the truth that the consistency of our thoughts, which produces our mental stability is mainly godly and divinely-inspired thoughts. Therefore, the Psalmist assured that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will grant us the desires and petitions of our heart as a just treatment. Shalom!

Scriptures reading - Psalm 1:1-6; Proverbs 3:5; Psalm 16:8,11; Colossians 3:2; Psalm 145:19.

Exuberant Declaration: The glorious thoughts of God and His Word dwell richly in my mind and heart in all wisdom and they guarantee my divine blessings and inward flow of joy. By means of spiritual influence, my constant meditation and delight in the Word serve divine interests and supply me with strength and my heart's desires. The testimony of my delight in God and His truth animates my edification and growth in grace. Hallelujah!