In What Do We Delight?

 

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

—Psalm 37:4

What brings us delight? Perhaps you delight in your children or grandchildren. Perhaps you delight in your husband or your wife, or your girlfriend or boyfriend. Perhaps you take special delight in your car or home. Perhaps you take delight in your job or one of your hobbies.

Over the years, I have taken delight in a variety of people and things. I take great delight in the wonderful wife God has given me. I greatly appreciate her talent as a musician, teacher, and writer. I take delight in her love of God and in her extreme patience with me and the love she shows me each day in so many ways.

I take great delight in my nieces and nephews. I have watched them grow from little children into spectacular adults. Those who are married are now wonderful parents with children of their own.

They have all been very successful in their chosen fields. Some of them have made a significant mark on their communities. Others have devoted themselves to the success of their families’ farms and introduced modern agri-business techniques.

One of them has obtained his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and is now teaching at my Alma Mater. One of my nieces graduated last June from that same Alma Mater. She joins several other nieces and/or their husbands who have graduated from that school.

I now take enormous delight in watching my grand-nieces and grand-nephews. The oldest grand-nephew is now a freshman in college. I am excited to see what the future holds for him. He is a very bright and very handsome young man.

Most of all, I am particularly pleased that each one of these dearly loved family members has chosen to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. As committed “Christ’s-ones,” I can see the mark of God on their lives and observe their devotion to His Kingdom. That surely brings me delight.

I have long delighted in my chosen career as a fire protection engineer. Having started as a member of the fire service and moved into industrial fire protection engineering a lifetime ago, I have the delight of seeing this field from both sides of the hose line. I continue to take delight in watching new developments in the field emerge.

I also continue to take great delight in radio broadcasting. Though it has now been many years since I’ve actually been on the air at a radio station, I still take delight in watching how new technology has revolutionized the radio industry. I also look forward with hope that some radio stations will return from their nationalized formats to include more local news coverage and emphasis on community events. I’m beginning to see this trend come to light and it brings me delight.

I take great delight in the opportunity God has given me each day to assist dear friends in their Kingdom ministry. Helping them has given me a renewed sense of purpose in these sunset years of my life.

On a more personal spiritual note, I am all too keenly aware of the words of King David, as recorded in Psalm 37:4:

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I’ve written about this verse in a previous blog post some years ago. I mentioned then how fascinated I am with the construction of the Hebrew. This verse can be properly read two very distinct ways.

It can be read that by taking delight in the Lord, He will give us whatever our hearts desire. That is an encouraging thought. Obviously, by taking delight in God, the desires of our heart will fall into line with His wishes for us. So, what we desire will come from our hearts attuned to God’s perfect will.

The verse can also be read that by taking delight in God, He will actually place within us that which our hearts will then desire. Said another way, because we faithfully find our delight in God, He will reward us by placing inside us desires that comes from His perfect will for us.

However you may choose to interpret this verse, it still is very good news. It tells us that the reward for obedience is a closer and more intimate relationship with the God who loves us. As we find our delight in Him, He will give us true delight in our minds and hearts.

With this revelation fresh in our minds, we can launch out into another new day with a smile on our face and a song in our heart. The God who loves us is a God of delight. He delights in us and we can truly delight in Him.

 

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