With a Song in My Heart
"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Corinthians 13:6-7
Have you ever been filled with delight? Have you ever been so enamored that it just drove you to sing? The scriptures have many instances where God shows up, remembers us in our weakness and it drove people throughout history to sing songs to the Lord. How do we, in a culture where we increasingly seek to be entertained, express our adoration to the Lord; moreover, do we truly delight in Him?
Recently, at services here at Redeemer Christian Church, we recounted the song of Hannah from scripture (1Samuel 2) when her son Samuel was born to her. Scripture says that the Lord remembered her; how often has the Lord remembered us? What was our song? Did we even have a song?
Sometimes in our talk about how much God loves us, and let us not be mistaken, He does; we can tend to take His grace, gifts and love for granted. This mindset is not a good posture for us to be in, when we take things for granted we tend to get into trouble. Would anyone board an aircraft if they knew it was not being checked or maintained? If it was ever found out that an airline or aircraft operator just took for granted that their aircraft would work and fly them without any inspection, not only would they lose their ability to operate their aircraft by authorities or worse, something catastrophic might ensue.
When we get too comfortable in our lives and take things for granted, we run the risk of not delighting in the Lord and instead, delighting in our stuff. Make no mistake about it, our stuff will not enrich us, in fact, it will leave us empty because temporal objects never truly satisfy us. We need to take a moment to regale the heroes of scripture who, unashamedly, worshiped God but what's more, they delighted in God. Far from this restricting us or causing us to miss out, God has given us desires and will grant us the desires of our hearts, if we would just delight ourselves in Him.
"Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
Hannah, Mary (Jesus' Mother), David and so many individuals in scripture have been very careful to remember God in what He had done for them. We need to learn to delight in Him. If you were to give a gift to a loved one or someone and they relished in the gift but not delighted or appreciative of the person who gave them it creates a terrible gulf between the giver and the receiver. There is a strain on relationships that are based on gifts with no acknowledgement of who has given them. In the same way, God remembers us, and has our best interest in mind; we are then invited into a space where we can relish and delight in the Lord. There is a joy that only comes when we learn to delight in the Lord and trust that His will for us is good and His faithfulness is enduring toward us.
"The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way."
Psalms 37:23
When we allow God to establish our steps, He actually delights in our way. What a profound thought, that the God of the universe would delight in our way when we delight in Him. Choose to live in the Joy of the Lord, delight in Him with your life and persevere in the faith!
1 Corinthians 13:6-7
Have you ever been filled with delight? Have you ever been so enamored that it just drove you to sing? The scriptures have many instances where God shows up, remembers us in our weakness and it drove people throughout history to sing songs to the Lord. How do we, in a culture where we increasingly seek to be entertained, express our adoration to the Lord; moreover, do we truly delight in Him?
Recently, at services here at Redeemer Christian Church, we recounted the song of Hannah from scripture (1Samuel 2) when her son Samuel was born to her. Scripture says that the Lord remembered her; how often has the Lord remembered us? What was our song? Did we even have a song?
Sometimes in our talk about how much God loves us, and let us not be mistaken, He does; we can tend to take His grace, gifts and love for granted. This mindset is not a good posture for us to be in, when we take things for granted we tend to get into trouble. Would anyone board an aircraft if they knew it was not being checked or maintained? If it was ever found out that an airline or aircraft operator just took for granted that their aircraft would work and fly them without any inspection, not only would they lose their ability to operate their aircraft by authorities or worse, something catastrophic might ensue.
When we get too comfortable in our lives and take things for granted, we run the risk of not delighting in the Lord and instead, delighting in our stuff. Make no mistake about it, our stuff will not enrich us, in fact, it will leave us empty because temporal objects never truly satisfy us. We need to take a moment to regale the heroes of scripture who, unashamedly, worshiped God but what's more, they delighted in God. Far from this restricting us or causing us to miss out, God has given us desires and will grant us the desires of our hearts, if we would just delight ourselves in Him.
"Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
Hannah, Mary (Jesus' Mother), David and so many individuals in scripture have been very careful to remember God in what He had done for them. We need to learn to delight in Him. If you were to give a gift to a loved one or someone and they relished in the gift but not delighted or appreciative of the person who gave them it creates a terrible gulf between the giver and the receiver. There is a strain on relationships that are based on gifts with no acknowledgement of who has given them. In the same way, God remembers us, and has our best interest in mind; we are then invited into a space where we can relish and delight in the Lord. There is a joy that only comes when we learn to delight in the Lord and trust that His will for us is good and His faithfulness is enduring toward us.
"The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way."
Psalms 37:23
When we allow God to establish our steps, He actually delights in our way. What a profound thought, that the God of the universe would delight in our way when we delight in Him. Choose to live in the Joy of the Lord, delight in Him with your life and persevere in the faith!
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