Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. In Hebrew, two of the most common terms for delight are hepes, “to bend towards, to be inclined towards [an object or a person]”, and rasa, “to delight or take pleasure in.” To delight is to desire. As humans, it is easy for us to delight in or take pleasure in that which is foolish or evil – to delight in the pleasures of this world. But what does it mean to truly delight yourself in the Lord? I by no means will claim to be an expert on the matter, but following is my interpretation of what it means to me to fully delight in Him. To begin, I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of finding delight in things apart from my Savior, which have all led me down paths toward sexual impurities, co-dependency, insecurity, doubt, and shame to name a few. I wandered down each of these paths for many years before coming to Christ, and though the Lord has redeemed me from my past, I still struggle with delighting myself in worldly desires. However, I fully believe in the grace of God and surrender those desires to Him on a daily basis. Titus 2:11-13 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” So to get to my point, I’ll start with what I don’t think the author of this Psalm was trying to say. I think many people read this verse and believe that if they do what God wants them to do, then He will give them the desires of their heart. While I do believe there is some truth to that conclusion, I don’t believe that is the point of this verse. While God does delight in giving us the desires of our hearts, I do not believe He gives solely based on our obedience. If that were the case, no one would ever receive blessings from Him. (Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) And now for the moment you have all been waiting for, what does it mean to delight in the Lord?! Delighting in Him means just that, delighting solely in Him. Real helpful huh?! We all have desires – some good and some not so good. Desires to marry, desires to have the perfect job, desires to drive a nice car, desires to fit in and so on. The question you have to ask yourself though is whether or not you will be happy if those desires are never fulfilled. When we are unhappy with unmet desires, we are either, A) seeking after the wrong desires or B) putting our desires before God and essentially saying that He isn’t enough. My point here is that God is all we really need and that all the other desires we have should fall short of our desire to have a relationship with Him. Delighting yourself in the Lord means knowing and understanding that if all you ever have is a relationship with God, you have everything you could possibly need. Like JP said a few weeks back, “You never know Jesus is all you need until He is all you have.” The beauty in all of this comes from the second part of the verse though. Ready for it?! God in His infinite wisdom knows that He is ultimately all we need, yet He still gives us more than we could ever need or deserve!!! He created us with more than just the purpose of needing Him, which is why He gives us godly desires. Once you have accepted that He is all you need, He plants His desires in your heart and He delights in giving you those desires!! Be encouraged and let Him lead you where ever His desires may take you. He might just surprise you!! Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Remember that sometimes you will have to wait on God to fulfill the desires He gives you but know that in your waiting, you are not just waiting for God, you are waiting with God. While other times, He gives you your desires in a completely different way than you expected. Either way, always trust that the Lord is good and that He has your best interests in mind. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” --by Julie Pierce
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Throughout our lives we hear phrases “have confidence” or “be more confident”. The definition of confidence is the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone, firm trust or a feeling of self assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. The root word in confidence is fid. Fid is latin and means FAITH. We generally assume then conFIDence means to have faith in oneself. Confidence is a powerful word and is used throughout God’s Word the Bible. However, due to the sly serpant implementing deceit dating back to Genesis in the Fall of Man (Chapter 3), Satan has “come to kill and steal and destroy.” (John 10:10) Satan fills the world with distortions and anything but God. Theses distortions can include having confidence in your appearance – where you think your value depends on how you look, performance - your confidence depends on how you perform or status – your confidence depends on who I can be or what I have. The world will tell us as long as we have confidence in ourselves and our own abilities we will have security in our identities. On the contrary following this pattern will lead us to a lack of faith, trust, and we’ll be longing for more that cannot be filled. Allow me to rebuke and correct this misconception and replace the world’s definition of confidence in ourselves to GODfidence in God’s Word where we can have FAITH in the ONE who “thoroughly equips every Man/Woman for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17) According to God’s Word in the Bible our appearance is individually unique to how our Creator made us. “God created “mankind” in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) Our performance is not measured by human effort according to Titus 3:5 where it states “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy…” However God does call us to act on Faith according to His Word, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22) In status we no longer “try to gain the whole world and forfeit our soul.” (Mark 8:36) We find security in God’s LOVE. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) To recap, in CHRIST ALONE, we can have GOD-fidence (FAITH in God) to know that he has made us individually unique, we no longer perform out of our own strengths and merits, but through the gifts He’s given us to steward according to His Word, and God has sealed our security as his children whom he passionately loves. Questions
--by Nick Parsons image taken from http://www.johnbarrettblog.com/godfidenceconfidence-gone-god-sized/
My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. - Proverbs 24:13-14 (ESV) It is an interesting piece of advice found in this specific Proverb. Why would Solomon, the wisest man to live, tell his son to eat honey as he pursues wisdom? While I can't speak with certainty, part of me does think that Solomon knew that his son (and some of us today) would struggle with refusing to partake in the good, the sweet, the special, the satisfying, and the gifts from the Lord in our own lives, waving our banner of "Nothing else before Him". While that attitude of the heart is seeking to honor God, how quickly can that turn from God-honoring to an idol? We start pulling ourselves up by our own strength and falling into legalism. We miss out on the goodness of honey, and ultimately, the sweetness of the Lord's wisdom because we are so caught up in the act. The Lord wants us to know that He is a good Father who loves His children. And He also knows that we need to experience a shadow and glimpse of just how good He is in order to better recognize just how GOOD the "good for our soul" is meant to feel. The honeycomb drippings are meant to point us past the honey and to the Author, Creator, and Perfecter of it Himself. As we seek the Lord and experience His wisdom, we will have a reference to be able to remember, saying, "Yes. This is the honey that my soul needs! This is sweet. This is good. This is of the Lord." Every good and perfect gift is from above, including something as small and as sweet as honey. In order for us to gain the full spiritual benefit of honey, we must really enjoy its sweetness. There must be a savoring of honey as honey before there can ever be a savoring of honey as a pointer to divine wisdom. In short, if we’re to obey the biblical exhortation to “Know that wisdom is such to your soul,” we must first “Know . . . such”—that is, we must first eat honey. - Joe Rigney, The Things of the Earth Questions1) What "honey" has the Lord shown to you - literal honey, a good cheeseburger, lazy weekend naps, a good workout, sunsets - that point you back to the Lord and help you as you encounter His wisdom? Do you recognize it for what it is 2) What "honey" are you denying yourself? Is this denial out of ungodly guilt or shame, or is this out of a true conviction that while the honey in question is not bad, it is just not wise for you to partake? 3) What wisdom has the Lord revealed to you that caused goodness to wash over your soul? --by Rachel Crampton
by Zachary Zebrosky CJB 2 Samuel 22:28-43 (Song of David)--"28People afflicted, you save; but when your eyes are on the haughty, you humble them. 29 “For you, Adonai, are my lamp; Adonai lights up my darkness. 30 With you I can run through a whole troop of men, with my God I can leap a wall. 31 “As for God, his way is perfect, the word of Adonai has been tested by fire; he shields all who take refuge in him. 32 For who is God but Adonai, and who is a Rock but our God? 33 “God is my strength and protection; he makes my way go straight. 34 He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer and enables me to stand on my high places. 35 He trains my hands for war until my arms can bend a bow of bronze; 36 You give me your shield, which is salvation; your answers make me great. 37 You lengthen the steps I can take, yet my ankles do not turn. 38 “I pursued my enemies and wiped them out, without turning back until they were destroyed. 39 I destroyed them, crushed them; they can’t get up; they have fallen under my feet. 40 “For you braced me with strength for the battle and bent down my adversaries beneath me. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, so that I could destroy those who hate me. 42 “They looked, but there was no one to help, even to Adonai, but he didn’t answer. 43 I pulverized them like dust on the ground, pounded and stamped on them like mud in the streets." “Baruch Atah Adonai,” or Blessed are you Lord in Hebrew, is something that you can say while you breathe. Baruch (Exhale), Atah (Inhale), Adonai (Exhale) vice versa, we can literally praise God with every breathe we take. We can also praise Him with every move the same as David said, “With my God, I can leap a wall… He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer...” We can praise God in our songs, steps, with our hands or with our voices. It’s great that God’s not picky about how He takes His praise because singing is something I'm not the best at. Even though I don’t mind shouting to God, I don’t mind mixing in a little bit of my passion for working out to show God my praise either. He creates taste in us so we may enjoy His creation. We all have different tastes in what we enjoy outdoors, music, art, yet God's taste to me is a plain & transparent because He enjoys EVERY detail about us, He desires us, & He wants to rock our world. He is The Rock, & since He lives inside of all of us, it's kind of hard for us not to rock. Questions for you & me...
by Jeff Reed Exodus 31:1-6 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: In our day and age, we are constantly told to have self-confidence and be proud of what we accomplish. We hear things like “you should be so proud”, “you earned it”, “you are such a hard worker, you deserve that”, “you have developed such great skill” and other such phrases. These aren’t necessarily bad things to say, but let’s dig a little deeper and think about some deeper aspects of them. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you believe that God is the source of all that is good in this world. Yet we then state that we worked hard, have a strong work ethic, took the initiative, taken advantage of opportunities, etc., which may be true, but let’s take a step back and ask “who gives us the desire to work hard, improve, take initiative?”…….yes class, just like every Sunday school question, the answer is……..JESUS!!! I bring this topic up not to say that we are to have no confidence and be proud of nothing in this life, but instead we are to put all of our confidence and pride in THE LORD! Just as we see in Exodus, God filled the people with the abilities and skills to achieve certain tasks for His glory. For it was HIS appointing, HIS filling, HIS giving that enabled them and us to do all the good we do. So in all things pursue excellence and work your tail off with the gifts, traits, desires and skills that He has given you so that His name will be proclaimed and exalted such that others may “see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16), and “in view of God’s mercy, (all believers are) to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). That’s right, using your physical traits and abilities for God is true and proper worship!!! Still need some convincing…..let me then step aside as the mediator and allow The King and His Word conclude…. Colossians 3:23-24 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
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