Thursday, February 8, 2018

He Delights in You!

One of the things I know I can say to someone and have a good chance of being on the receiving end of a crazy face, is to tell them that the God of the universe delights in them. Yep. I say those words and as often as not, I can see the eyes in front of me glaze over as the person begins to wonder what other signs of insanity I may have been showing recently.  

The fact of the matter is, many of us have a hard time believing that the all-powerful God finds anything delightful about us. We look in the mirror daily and list out our faults and flaws. Some of us make a full time job of displaying an image that will cover the truth of who we really are, because we find something lacking in ourselves.  

When I had no belief in God as an active, loving creator, when I just saw Him as a distant "man upstairs", I certainly couldn't imagine him having any real interest in me, never mind  taking personal delight in me, so you can imagine my surprise when I began to understand that the almighty God loved me, knew me by name, knows the number of hairs on my head (and with my hair, that number changes daily), and cared about me even at my absolute worst, so very much that He sent His own precious and perfect son to die for me.  

Even when I accepted God's love, and believed that Jesus Christ had died for my sins, I still hadn't really taken hold of the idea that God delighted in me.  At least I did not until a beautiful woman of God who was walking me and a handful of ladies through a study to help us heal and recover from the heartache of our past abortions, shared these words with me, words from God's own word:

"The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing."  Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

Suddenly, I didn't just have the word delight baffling me, but I had an image that I could truly relate to and understand.  He [GOD] "will rejoice over you with singing".  Y'all, we are talking about the kind of delight and love that causes you to burst into song.  As a lifetime lover of musicals, I suddenly got it.  This is the show stopping song that comes in a musical when something amazing happens!  This is Gene Kelly splashing in puddles belting out "Singing in the Rain".  This is Annie tapping with the household staff to "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here".  This is Eliza spotting Alexander across the room and declaring she's "Helpless"!  This is the kind of joy and delight that leads to an expression through song because words are not enough, and this is the God of the Universe singing over you and me!  

And here is the best part.  You don't have to understand why He loves you.  You don't have to think you deserve His delight. You don't even have to do a single thing to earn it.  In fact, you can't earn it.  You and I are on the receiving end of the gracious and merciful love and delight of God the Father. All you have to do is open up your heart to the Savior, trust in Him and receive it.  Once you receive it, feel free to hum along to His song and dance a little too.  I know I will. I'm just sayin'!

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