What is your favorite dessert? Maybe, like my daughter and I, you can totally dive into one of those chocolate sponge volcano cakes, capped with vanilla ice cream and drenched with rich chocolate syrup. Or what is your idea of a musical masterpiece? You can probably name one immediately, whether vocal or instrumental, that transports your soul up through the sky and into the heavenly places! Or what is the most amazing scenery you've ever gazed on? Perhaps it was the colors, the vastness, the variety, or the sheer size of what you saw... whatever it was, you found yourself grasping for the right adjectives.
Each of these images have something in common. They are processed through the mind. Our tongue, our ears, our eyes, all send messages to the brain, messages that leave behind a happy memory, and one we would rapidly call delightful. Every single thing we enjoy is first received and managed by the incredible gift we have between our ears!
So what is God trying to tell us when He has the psalmist write (37:4), "Delight thyself also in the Lord..."?
Clearly He is handing us an invitation. And it's no ordinary one. He is opening an unusual door, one that promises to be not only enjoyable to go through, but one that leads to a marvelous prize: the granting of the desires of our hearts.
Notice the verb--Delight.
It is very rich. It speaks of a God who loves, a God who gives, a God who is good, a God who is generous. It tells us that He intends for us to experience joy and satisfaction.
So, to delight in something involves thinking. And this particular idea has to do with engaging our intellect in the most enjoyable, rewarding, and glorious exercise that can ever be offered to man. It is the challenge of looking to the Infinite One, through the window of His Word, and being drawn into a personal and eternal relationship with Him.
It is a rational journey, and a wonderful one, that starts in the mind, and then branches out until it saturates every part of our lives.
We know how to delight ourselves in earthly experiences. But how about in spiritual ones? Our bodies and souls are experts at finding pleasures in the visible and emotional realms. But what about our spirits? Have we heard and understood the call from our Maker, the one that will transport us out and beyond the end of time, into the never expiring fellowship with God?
Do we know what it is to be enraptured with Him though the Scriptures? Is it our joy to find a quiet spot just to relish our privileges as children of God? I wonder. It seems that for some, their faith is a mechanical, dull, unfulfilling thing. That is not the way the Lord means to be.
The greatest delight, the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure available to man, is to focus his mind, not on the pursuit of visible goals, but on the knowledge of the Invisible One!
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Each of these images have something in common. They are processed through the mind. Our tongue, our ears, our eyes, all send messages to the brain, messages that leave behind a happy memory, and one we would rapidly call delightful. Every single thing we enjoy is first received and managed by the incredible gift we have between our ears!
So what is God trying to tell us when He has the psalmist write (37:4), "Delight thyself also in the Lord..."?
Clearly He is handing us an invitation. And it's no ordinary one. He is opening an unusual door, one that promises to be not only enjoyable to go through, but one that leads to a marvelous prize: the granting of the desires of our hearts.
Notice the verb--Delight.
It is very rich. It speaks of a God who loves, a God who gives, a God who is good, a God who is generous. It tells us that He intends for us to experience joy and satisfaction.
So, to delight in something involves thinking. And this particular idea has to do with engaging our intellect in the most enjoyable, rewarding, and glorious exercise that can ever be offered to man. It is the challenge of looking to the Infinite One, through the window of His Word, and being drawn into a personal and eternal relationship with Him.
It is a rational journey, and a wonderful one, that starts in the mind, and then branches out until it saturates every part of our lives.
We know how to delight ourselves in earthly experiences. But how about in spiritual ones? Our bodies and souls are experts at finding pleasures in the visible and emotional realms. But what about our spirits? Have we heard and understood the call from our Maker, the one that will transport us out and beyond the end of time, into the never expiring fellowship with God?
Do we know what it is to be enraptured with Him though the Scriptures? Is it our joy to find a quiet spot just to relish our privileges as children of God? I wonder. It seems that for some, their faith is a mechanical, dull, unfulfilling thing. That is not the way the Lord means to be.
The greatest delight, the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure available to man, is to focus his mind, not on the pursuit of visible goals, but on the knowledge of the Invisible One!
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4)
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