{"id":206,"date":"2017-10-07T03:30:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T08:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/?p=206"},"modified":"2017-10-06T09:30:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:30:44","slug":"delight-in-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/delight-in-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Delight in the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

What comes to mind when you hear the word delight? Is it laughter? Beauty? The flavor of a strawberry? Is it memories with friends or being captivated by art or music?<\/span><\/p>\n

God calls us throughout scripture to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 states: \u201c<\/span>Delight yourself in the Lord\u2026<\/span><\/i>\u201d Job 22:26 talks about \u201c<\/span>delighting yourself in the Almighty and lifting up your face to God.<\/span><\/i>\u201d I want to pause for a moment and ask an obvious and yet essential question: Is your relationship with God best described as full of delight?<\/span><\/p>\n

If your answer to that question is NO, that\u2019s Okay. Rest assured, you are still loved by God. God knows our fears and failures and yet still delights in us. As Paul states in Romans 8:1: \u201c<\/span>Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.<\/span><\/i>\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The theme \u201cDelight in the Lord\u201d is Reconciled World\u2019s theme for 2018 and 2019. I am excited to journey together with you in this and to see what God reveals to us in the coming two years!<\/span><\/p>\n

A false picture of God<\/h5>\n

Many of us live with a false picture of God. We see God as the taskmaster God\u2014a compassionate and yet stern boss. Or we live in fear that we will not live up to His lofty expectations of us. It\u2019s a relationship built on obligation, not love. Duty, not delight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our tendency is to transfer the worldly pressure of performing onto our relationship with God. We allow God to be viewed through the same lens as that impossible to please earthly father or the judgemental pastor we experienced. Thus, making us feel incapable and unreliable; shamed and exhausted. In my opinion this wrong view of God is one of the biggest hindrances to our communion and intimacy with Him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finding freedom in Christ<\/h5>\n

Do you know that you can lay those fears and failures before him? That Jesus loves you right where you are at, in the midst of those feelings? That through Christ you have been released from performance, you have been set free. No fear of obligation, no shame of unmet expectation. Not in Jesus! Reflect for a moment on the truth of how God is viewing you right now: <\/span><\/p>\n

He is a loving Father that longs for intimacy with you (James 4:8). He is a Father that sees you through the eyes of mercy and grace, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalms 86:15). He enjoys you (Psalms 37:23) and has invited you to partner with Him in His work of redeeming and reconciling (2 Corinthians 5:18). In the Bible, I see a Father that says He is your strong tower, your refuge, your hiding place\u2014to name only a few (Psalms 61:3, 32:7). He is a Father who delights in you, sings over you, and takes pleasure in you (Zephaniah 3:17, Psalms 149:4). <\/span><\/p>\n

God is not a harsh condemning supervisor. Rather He is a captivating Father that is waiting to share His heart with us and waiting to hear our hearts expressed to Him. <\/span><\/p>\n

God calls us to delight in Him because He delights in us. What a magnificent invitation! <\/span><\/p>\n

Satan loves to rob us of our delight<\/h5>\n

Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the devil keeps humans from \u201c<\/span>seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.<\/span><\/i>\u201d What Paul means here is that the devil is in the business of killing our enjoyment in the beauty of Christ. The devil came \u201c<\/span>to steal and kill and destroy<\/span><\/i>\u201d (John 10:10). And far too often that comes in the form of stealing our delight in Christ. Whether busyness, a false understanding of God\u2019s view of us, or simply twisting our admiration to things of this world, our delight gets robbed. <\/span><\/p>\n

Delighting in God is something we can do everyday. As we find simple and tangible ways to reposition and discover Christ in our life, we will find that Jesus absolutely did come \u201c<\/span>that we might have life, and have it in abundance<\/span><\/i>\u201d (John 10:10). Abundant life is joy. Abundant life is flourishing. Abundant life is being alive in Christ and delighting in Him daily. <\/span><\/p>\n

The path before us<\/h5>\n

I am so excited to explore this theme of \u201cdelight in the Lord\u201d with each of you. Over the next two years, once every two months, we will unpack <\/span>several common as well as potentially new and fresh ways to delight in God. My prayer is that through these discoveries you will become deeply connected to Jesus. That your heart and soul would be renewed and recharged and that your patterns of coming before God will be expanded and refreshed. <\/span>We will look at topics such as celebration, worship, enjoying creation, loving others, creating, Bible study, and so much more. God is sure to shape us in this theme of delighting in the Lord. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a leader, God has called you to more than just survive, but to flourish in the love of Christ. May we live into that abundance daily as we learn to delight in the Lord! <\/span><\/p>\n

* <\/span>Our next Flourish blog will dig into our first \u201cDelight in the Lord\u201d theme: worship and gratitude<\/span><\/i><\/h6>\n<\/div>
\n

Growth Point<\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Delighting in the Lord is a daily decision because Satan wants to steal our joy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture Point<\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Read Psalm 149. What does this chapter say to you about delighting in the Lord?<\/span><\/p>\n

Action Point:<\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Pick a day this week and take a mental note of all the things that bring a smile to your face. Maybe it is ice cream? Your children? A breeze or the smell of flowers? What are those things that you find yourself delighting in? Consider those gifts from God and take a moment to be thankful to the Giver! <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Complete this sentence: \u201cGod thank you for your gift of _____________. You must really love me.\u201d Write your answer and stick it on the wall, mirror, or some place where you will be reminded of it throughout the day.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>
    <\/div><\/div><\/mask><\/g><\/g><\/clipPath><\/filter><\/defs><\/svg><\/div>
    Photo by\u00a0Mohamed Nohassi<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/div>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    God calls us throughout scripture to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 states: \u201cDelight yourself in the Lord\u2026\u201d Job 22:26 talks about \u201cdelighting yourself in the Almighty and lifting up your face to God.\u201d I want to pause for a moment and ask an obvious and yet essential question: Is your relationship with God best described as full of delight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-growth","category-personal-health-and-renewal","category-delight-in-the-lord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}