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Delight

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

                I’ve written about this verse before. If you delight in the Lord, than the Lord is the desire of your heart. If you delight in the Lord, He will give you Himself. This isn’t a “sing a worship song” and get rich, powerful, and famous verse. But we’ve discussed all that before, so let’s change the approach.

                What does delight mean? According to the dictionary, it means to be pleased with or take pleasure in. To take delight in the Lord is to be pleased with Him. What does that mean? It means feeling or showing pleasure or satisfaction. It probably won’t help to go down that rabbit trail any farther. A picture might help. When I think of a delighted child, this is the picture that comes to mind:




But when I think of a delighted adult, there are lots of images. Someone sitting back with their eyes closed, listening to music they enjoy, or with eyes open, reading a really good book or watching a really good movie, someone eating something they really like, etc. With kids who lack the emotional “vocabulary,” jumping up and down, squealing, or looking like this youngster might be it, but adults don’t necessarily externalize their delight as much.

                So what does it mean to you to delight in, take pleasure in, or be satisfied with something, especially if that something is God? The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is that when something delights me, I tend to want to take pictures of it, tell someone about it, include it in a story, use it to make something, or perhaps binge on it. Other ideas that don’t necessarily fit me so well include throwing my arms around it, giving it gifts, spending time with it, doing something to benefit it, or to speak well of it (including to it.) Feel free to leave comments about ways you express delight.

                Some of these don’t exactly fit delighting in a person, and especially in God. But here’s a good challenge for all of us. Today, look for opportunities to take delight in God or in something He does, whatever that looks like.

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