THE DELIGHTS OF GOD
THE DELIGHTS OF GOD
I am blessed with many children and every one of them is a delight to me in different ways. Just thinking about them always brings a smile to my face and whenever we are together; aaaah; my joy knows no bounds. All my children are specially gifted. They write, they sprint, they cook, they play musical instruments, they are truly a delight and I am grateful to God for this blessing.
The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus defines “to delight in something” to mean “to get a lot of pleasure from something.” So I am blessed to get a lot of pleasure from my children. It is a real privilege and I do not take it for granted.
However as parents there are times we are definitely not pleased with our offspring. Ooh yes! When they do not do well at school or when they are blatantly disobedient, are just a few times that the last thing on our minds would be pleasure.
And so it is with our Heavenly Father. There are things we do that delight Him and others that do not. “But Samuel replied, “what is more pleasing to the lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22 KJV
Clearly, God is pleased when we walk in obedience to Him rather than being disobedient and then bringing a sacrifice to make up for it. That is just not acceptable to Him. Yet we are told that even when He is not pleased with us, His anger lasts for just a short while. There is the story of King David (1 Chronicles 21) when he went and took a census of the children of Israel. “God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it.” 1 Chronicles 21:7 NLT For punishment however, God gave king David three choices. In my opinion, allowing them to choose their punishment is in itself an act of Mercy. God could have punished them as He saw fit. But He gave them a choice. Please listen to David’s choice; “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” 1 Chronicles 21:13 NLT King David knew that the mercy of God triumphs over judgment, that His mercy is indeed very great. Thus he immediately confessed his sin knowing that what he had done was not pleasing to God. “Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing.” 1 Chronicles 21: 8 NLT As much as our Heavenly Father expects us to please Him always, He understands that we often fall short. But here is the thing, we are not to beat ourselves up and remain in the place of wrong doing. No! Like king David did, let us humbly go to God and confess our sins “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9 NLT
In spite of the fact that God wants us to be a delight to Him, there are things that He also delights to do.
“Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.” Micah 7:18 NLT
God delights in showing us His unfailing love, His mercy, His grace, His compassion.
So whenever we upset Him and we know that naturally He will not be pleased with us, let us remember that the anger is only for a while. Let us make haste to go on our knees and ask for pardon. He actually longs for us to do just that.
God delights to show us His mercy and unfailing love;
Oluyinka Ego-Martins ©