The Truth about Delighting…

I’ve been wrestling with a verse that I once thought was so easy to understand.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart”. – Psalm 37:4

Last night, I heard a thought provoking message by John Piper. In the message he talks about the importance of delighting ourselves in God and mentions the most important commandment God gives us which is to love the Lord your God with ALL of your heart.

That sounds so simple right? Wrong. The reason being is because to delight in something doesn’t necessarily mean you have to immediately do something or take action. The Merriam Webster dictionary definition of delight is; “something that gives great pleasure”.

For so long I’ve associated delighting in God as; okay now I have to do this for the church, now I have to read the Bible everyday, now I have to lay down anything that is not of God. But that isn’t the correct order.

John Piper presents the idea that once you are delighting in the Lord, actions follow. Once you love the Lord with all your heart, you will take action because you’re immersed in loving him. That’s so amazing to me, but yet so hard as well. As a Christian, I’m constantly feeling like I have to do, do, and do some more but God wants us to truly delight in him. Not only are we in pursuit of him but he is in pursuit of us.

Slowly (and I mean slowly) I’m figuring out what this means. I’m trying to truly learn and understand the art of delighting. Many times, I’ve felt guilty or ashamed because I didn’t spend time with God that day or I didn’t read my devotional that morning but that isn’t who God is. He merely asks us to delight in him…and love him. Not only will we see our actions change because of it, but ultimately God will give us the desires of our heart. Not necessarily our pre planned human desires, but the desires he places within us.