Delight in Him

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Delight in Him

“Desire is love in action, like a bird on the wing. Delight is love in rest, like a bird on its nest.” - Matthew Henry

Psalm 37:4 is a beautiful promise. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This verse encourages us to draw near to Jesus and delight in Him. When we do, the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts. Now, this doesn't mean He'll grant us our own selfish desires, but rather, He will give us His. As we delight in Him, He will transform our hearts, planting desires in us that align with His will and purposes. And we will love those desires He plants…well, because they will become the desires of our hearts! Not only that, He will fulfill them.

But what does it really mean to delight in the Lord? The word delight means to enjoy or to find pleasure in. It's the kind of delight that carries a sense of real inner joy, peace, and satisfaction. To delight in the Lord is to enjoy all the blessings found in Him, enjoying the Giver more than the gifts themselves.

When we delight in Him...

• we’ll delight to be in His presence. Ps 27:4

• we’ll delight to pray and talk to Him throughout our day. Ps 42:1

• we’ll delight to read, meditate on, and obey His Word. Ps 1:2, Psalm 119

• we'll delight to tell others about Him. Ps 66:16

• we'll delight in His good and perfect gifts from above because we’ll know they’re coming from Him. James 1:17

Set Your Mind

Reminder: In Scripture, the mind and heart are interchangeable terms. Both represent the seat of thought, will, and emotion:.

It begins in the mind. What we believe will start to reflect what we do. Delighting in the Lord first transforms the way we think about things (Romans 12:2), which carries out into our attitudes, behavior, and how we live.

When we make it a practice of “setting our minds on things above" (Col 3:2), we start to think differently about God, ourselves, sin, the world, eternity, etc. Setting our minds on eternal things transforms our hearts to love and obey God more. Consequently, that makes us turn away from sin more. As we practice setting our minds on things above, our hearts' desires will supernaturally begin to align with what God wants for us. This means we’ll crave the desires of the flesh less (Gal 5:19-21), and we’ll long more for the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We’ll continue to repent from self-serving ways and be more inclined toward expressing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5: 22–23), through our faith in Jesus. This is also known as sanctification for the Christian.  It's a slow, gradual, and imperfect process, but guaranteed to be completed once it begins. (Philippians 1:6)

Ask Me Anything

We could never expect the Lord to fulfill any kind of desire that goes against His will and doesn't bring Him glory. So, only when our desires are righteous and not selfish ones, we can know that if we ask anything in Jesus' name, our prayer requests will be granted (1 John 5:14-15, John 14:14). To ask in Jesus' name means to ask for anything that is consistent with His person, nature, will, perfection, purposes, and glory. For You have given him his heart’s desire; You have withheld nothing he requested (Ps 21:2). Ask Me anything in My name, and I will do it (John 14:14). What an awesome promise for the Christian!

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will fulfill our hearts' desires that align with His will and purposes, benefit us, and ultimately bring Him glory. Our hearts will be satisfied in Jesus alone and in ways that achieve God's purpose for our lives (Romans 8:28), making us more like Jesus (Rom 8:30), which is the main goal of the Christian life.

Like a Bird on its Nest

The book of Ecclesiastes talks about Solomon's exhausting journey for true happiness and purpose in life. He went on many different pursuits, but all his winding roads resulted in his hunger and thirst. This was until he discovered his real purpose and his ultimate delight in a personal relationship with the Lord. Everything else was "vanity and chasing the wind." Ecclesiastes 1:14

Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again. Simply by believing in Him, we have eternal life as a free gift! Wow. Therefore, a truly happy life is when we look confidently into eternity because of our personal relationship and firm foundation we have with Jesus as both our Lord and our Savior. What a delight it is to be found in Him! Therefore, let us delight in Him!

When we delight ourselves in Jesus, we won't be hungry, thirsty, or restless. We will be delighted, finding our nourishment, satisfaction, and rest in Jesus, like a bird on its nest. :)

All glory belongs to Jesus, our Lord and Savior!

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He grants the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cries for help and rescues them. Psalm 145.19

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35

 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33