Delight In The Lord

Delight In The Lord

Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

I am not sure if you have noticed but I have been sticking to Psalm 37 this week.  I read it on Friday after my prayer group and the verses given at prayer group were Psalm 37:1-7. However, when I read them, I realized that there was so much packed into those 7 short verses.  Then I was going to do 2 verses each day, but even 2 sometimes was too much.  For instance yesterday’s verse was “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pastures.”  The second verse would have been this verse, but by the time I finished talking about trusting the Lord and doing good, it was the end of the episode.  I could have probably just made it a longer episode and squeezed this verse in, but I didn’t want to rush past this very important point.  

Have you ever thought about taking delight in the Lord?  I am sure this is not the only time this idea is presented in the Bible.  Actually there are more than 10 instances in the Bible where it talks about taking delight in the Lord or in His law.  I have never thought of taking delight in the Lord before.  I mean, I love him and I spend time with him, but to be honest, when I read this verse I wondered how I would even do take delight in the Lord.  I literally typed into the search bar on my computer, “How does one delight in the Lord.”  I tell you this because I don’t want you to think because I am doing this podcast, I have everything figured out.  I don’t want you to think when I speak I am speaking with any authority as if I was an expert.  I am on the same journey you are on.  We could study the Bible our whole lives and still not have it all figured out.

When I read a scripture verse I listen to what the Holy Spirit has to tell me about the verse, I also think about what I have learned up until this point, and sometimes, many times, I go to the internet to see what others say about this verse.  My goal with this podcast is for us to be on this journey together to discover God’s Word more fully and to see how we can apply that word to our daily lives.  I am not choosing versing that I already understand.  Actually I am not really choosing the verses.  I am using the verses from my prayer group that people feel inspired by the Holy Spirit to share.  This means often times I will get a verse and I don’t completely understand what it means.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives me an understanding and sometimes I find that understanding through research.  

I do know that it is important to read the scripture and to try to understand it.  This was confirmed at my prayer group the other day, someone felt strongly that the Lord wanted to tell us that His word is as pertinent today as it was then.  We have the Lord right in our tabernacle and he is right there with us in adoration and in everything.  His word is still as powerful today as it was.  That is why it is important to read his word and fill us so that we can fill ourselves with what God wants to tell us.” God will speak to you directly through the scriptures if you let Him.

Ok, back to today’s verse.  How does one delight in the Lord?  I found two really good articles and I will put a link to them in the show notes.  One of them was titled, “What Does It Mean To Take Delight In The Lord?” and was written by Tracy Kulwicki.  In this article Tracy talks not only about this verse, but the verses we discussed yesterday.  Psalm 37:3-4 ““Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”  The author said before you get the desires of your heart you need to trust in the Lord, do good and take delight in the Lord.  She says the reason we need to do these things first is not because we need to win God over, or because we need to work hard to get things from God.  The reason we need to do these things is because when we do these things first, then our desires become His.  

We talked a lot yesterday about how to trust in the Lord and do good.  Today we will talk about how do we delight in the Lord?  Here is what Tracy says about how we can delight in the Lord.  

“When I take delight in my children, I spend time with them. I watch the things they do. I notice who they are. I notice their features and character. I laugh at the funny things they do. I hold them close. I talk with them. I listen to them. I recognize the unique things about them that make them who they are. I think about them often. I focus on the great things about them that I love. I remember the words they’ve said that melt my heart, the great memories we’ve created together, and the times when we overcame something challenging together.

She went on to say, “We can do the same things with God. We take delight in God by spending time with Him, watching the things He is doing in our lives. We can notice who He is, learn about His features and characteristics. We can laugh at the funny moments in our lives that come from His hand. We can hold Him close, talk with Him, listen to Him. Recognize who He is, think about Him all throughout our day and focus on His greatness and love. We can remember the times He has moved in our lives, the things He has done for us, and the prayers He has answered.”

I think this is both a great description of how we already delight in things and also how we can apply what we are already doing to God.  Just listening to that description of how we delight in our children made me smile.  It made me think of how much I love my children.  If you don’t have children, I bet you do have something that you delight in as she described above.  It might be a pet, friends, nieces and nephews, cousins, friends.  Whatever it is that you delight in, that was a pretty good description of how we go about doing it.  Then thinking about how I could apply that to our Lord made me smile as well.  I love our Lord.  I am sure you do too, or you wouldn’t be listening to a podcast titled, “Walk Boldly With Jesus.”  Thinking about all the ways we can delight in him, makes me smile and warms my heart.  Let me break down some of the things she said so we can really remember them.

Spend time with Him.  This is something we talk about a lot.  However, in this context we are not talking about it as if spending time with the Lord is one more thing on your to do list.  Spend time with Him with the intent to delight in Him.  Set aside time for Him and then look forward to that time in the same way you would look forward to spending time with anyone or anything that you delight in.Watch the things He is doing in your life.  Take notice throughout the day of what the Lord is doing in your life.  Focus on the big and small ways that God is showing up for you each and every day.  He is there and you will notice where He is if you look for Him.  The more you look, the more you will see Him.  
“Seek and you shall find.”We can notice who He is.  We can learn about His features and characteristics.  There are a number of ways we can do this.  If we read the Bible we will learn a lot about who God is, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is.  Reading God’s word is a great way to get to know Him.  It is also not the only way.  You can read books written by Saints, theologians, people who have studied the Bible and history.  You can listen to podcasts or watch movies about God.  We live in an age where all the knowledge you want is right at your fingertips.  Whatever way you learn best, is great.  It doesn’t have to be just one way.  There is no right or wrong way to learn about the Lord.  Do what is best for you.  There are many roads all leading to the same place.Laugh at the funny moments that God brings us.  I am sure we have all had funny moments in our lives.  I am sure we have had times when we knew how things were going to go and they went horribly wrong in our eyes, and perfectly right in the Lord’s eyes.  When we are no longer in that situation and we can look back on it and see how funny it actually is.  God has a great sense of humor.  The ladies at prayer group get to witness this frequently when God gives them a vision.  Think of any of these funny times that God has given to you.  Humor in our lives is a gift.We can hold Him close, talk to Him, and listen to Him.  These are all possible.  You may be wondering how we can hold Him close when He is not physically here.  I can think of two ways.  First, if you are Catholic then you can receive the Eucharist and He literally couldn’t be any closer to you.  Second, you can hold him close to your heart in the same way that you hold those that you have lost close to your heart.  If you have ever lost someone close to you then you know that is not just a figure of speech.  You are literally holding those people close to your heart.  I think we all know that we can talk to Him, but do we do it?  How often do you talk to the Lord?  He is always available and ready to listen.  If you are not doing this often, maybe it is time to do it more.  You may know that you can talk to the Lord, but did you know that you can listen to Him as well?  I don’t think we do this often enough.  God wants to talk to us, but how many of us give Him the time to listen?  Recognize who He is.  When I read that I think of praising Him.  Not just recognizing that He is God, but recognizing all that entails.  Recognizing that He is the creator of all things.  He is the Lord God almighty.  There is so much to who He is and taking some time to explore that and to celebrate that would definitely help you delight in Him.Think about Him all throughout the day and focus on His goodness and His Love.  This is a great one to end with.  Try and turn your thoughts to Him all throughout the day.  I believe she mentioned in the article to set reminders on your phone until you are trained to do it automatically.  Also focus on His goodness and His love.  When we focus on those two things I don’t know how we can do anything else but delight in the Lord.  God’s goodness and love are so amazing.  They are unsurpassed by anything else.  If we keep these in mind we are guaranteed to delight in Him.

There is so much more in Tracy’s article.  I urge you to read her full article.  (click here for article) You can click on the link in the show notes or even just to google “What does it mean to take delight in the Lord?”.  Her website is workingmomsbalance.com  It was a great article and it went into more detail than I could in this episode.  

I just want to leave you with the question, “What can you do today to delight in the Lord?”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those that listen to this episode today.  Lord we love you and we want to delight in you.  Lord, help us to get to know you better and help us to spend more time with you.  Help us to notice where you are in our lives Lord and help us to remember all the funny things you have done.  You are amazing Lord and we are so very thankful for all that you do for us every day.  You keep showing up for us even when we aren’t the best at showing up for you and we are grateful for that Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Another great article Titled "Delight Yourself in the Lord: This Changed My Life" by Kelly R Baker.  (click here for article)

To Sign up for the "10 Weeks To Be More Like Jesus" Challenge click here.