YOUR DELIGHT
SATURDAY 06 AUGUST 2022
Anyone who walks with God must learn the things of God and be assured of practising them. And most importantly, they must be in tune with the Holy Spirit's guidance and get to delight in the Holy Scriptures, because they are not ordinary information but divine revelation.
Reference: Psalm 1:2 Amplified Bible (AMP) "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night."
Delight here means great pleasure, gusto, joy or positive excitement, especially when gained from the satisfaction of a desire. In the Greek translation, it is known as Chara, which is almost the same as joy. So delight is a form of joyful exuberance. The Psalmist acknowledged that a blessed man is someone who is thrilled beyond words while digging deep into God's Word. In other words, they chew on Scriptures day and night.
Our delight is a powerful influence in our lives. In a nutshell, the secret is that your delight is a habit. Notice that the AMP translation of our referenced verse noted, "...And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night." Delight is a habitual thing. If you don't have a delight in the Word as a Christian, then you have a bad habit that needs to be replaced. But if your delight in the Word is in place, you'll be daily conditioned by choice to make any moment of the day, a time for meditating on the Word. Did you know that the law of lasting prosperity requires us to give the best delight to the Word? This is revealed in verse 3: "That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers" (Psalm 1:3 NIV).
When your delight for the word is at a very weak level, the alternative is that you'll default to the habit of thinking or acting in line with and conforming to the pattern of this world because the natural, human delight automatically functions by yielding to worldly desires. The difference is YOU, as a child of God, getting to know who you are and embracing the right to delight in the Word by constant discipline. So it is your choice. The secret of righteous delight is this: The level of delight you invest in the Word is the level of reward you draw back from the Word. Therefore, you must make up your mind to invest immense delight in the Word in order to assemble a good success and lasting progress.
Channelling or attaching your delight to the Word fully, after you are born again, matters to God because it transforms your life and ensures that you align with the realities of your new life in Christ. Otherwise, you can remain the same old habitual "you" with same old self, same old attitude or behaviour, in accordance with sinful nature. This is why Pauline epistle in Romans 12:2 reads, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will" (NIV). Evidently, you can only renew your mind when your delight is focused on the Word. That way, you subscribe to slanting your attitude and behaviour more in alignment with God's will, thereby becoming a mature and confident person in the Lord.
Sometimes people feel that their goal is their delight. No! Don't ever confuse your set goals with delight. Your delight in the Word will always endure and effect positive change in every phase of your life, but your goals won't last long because goals change overtime, since they are short-lived or short-term. Goals can only help you do the things you should do at a given period of time, and even when you don't feel like doing them, set goals remain dormant, meaning that you can find other options but your delight is a burning desire and drive to get involved in something that you derive joy from, which results in a rewarding experience. So your delight can keep you going when an unpleasant situation faces you, but your goals usually need your conducive attention. Therefore, take delight in the Lord and His Word, which is full of wisdom, and he will give you your heart's desires (Psalm 37:4 NLT).
Scripture Reading - Psalm 112:1; Isaiah 61:10; Psalm 119:14; 1 Corinthians 13:6-7.
Exuberant Declaration: I'm fully assured of the truth and reality of the Scriptures because I delight in and meditate on them day and night. Therefore, I'm forever grateful that my delight in the Word is profitable for all purposes of my Christian life. Glory to God!
