But – did I know what that verse meant?
How Do We Live a Life Devoted to Delight in God?
Once I started studying the very Psalm that captured my heart toward delighting in God, I began to grasp the true meaning of a life devoted and delighted in Christ.
Psalm 37:3 starts off the conversation about delight and our desires. In The Voice translation it says, “Believe in the Eternal, and do what is good – live in the land He provides; roam, and rest in God’s faithfulness.”
Let’s dive into the different parts of that verse:
Believe and trust in God: align our heart and soul with the King of the Universe who, by the way, loves you with an eternal, everlasting love. Does knowing this is the God we serve drive our desires toward what pleases Him and away from a temporary rush, pleasure in sin?
Do what the Lord says not what you see sinners doing: I went on a quest to seek out anywhere Scripture talks about pleasing the Lord because delighting and pleasing go hand in hand. When we take great joy in someone, we want to please him or her. But it’s more than pleasing out of a sense of obligation; it’s about living and doing what brings that person joy. What the Lord reminded me of in His word is the greatest commandment: to Love God and to love others. {Matthew 27:36-40}
The Key to Killing Sin:
As our heart yearns for more of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, joy, peace we turn away from those desires that cause death to us physically, mentally, and emotionally. Think of the woman in Luke 7who, though she was notorious around town for her sinful ways, she fell before Jesus in repentance. And in her repentance ––her turning away from sin––she traded the ways of her flesh for a life of worship; spilling expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet as an act of devotion where she placed value on her King Jesus.
A delight in God replaces the void where our old ways, our sin, took up space in our life. For if we don’t replace the old ways with something better, actions and devotions more holy, we are liable to fall into a different trap of sin again. So just like the woman in Luke, let’s trade in our outright and secret sins, let’s turn away from them. And let’s replace those with a life of delighted worship. In worship, our soul finds depth in life giving fruit and puts away any illusions of earthly, temporal pleasures. This is how we work through our sanctification, becoming less enticed by sin and more alive in Christ.
We delight in the Lord. As we delight in His ways, this communion with Jesus shifts our desires toward what is right and good.
And we thrive in abundant life. (John 10:10)
[written by Sarah Martin]
