He delights in you.

did you know God delights in you?

from a young age, I knew God created the universe. I knew God created me. I knew God sent Jesus and that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

what I didn’t know is that God actually delights in me.

I wonder how different my self-talk would have been growing up if I had realized that God delights in me. He takes great pleasure in me. He gives me things to enjoy.

according to Merriam Webster, delight means the following:

1. a high degree of gratification or pleasure.

2. something that gives great pleasure.

3. the power of affording pleasure.

in Psalm 37:3-4, David explains how God delights in us. He says,

3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
    Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you your heart’s desires (NLT).

David goes on to say this in verse 23-24,

23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
    He delights in every detail of their lives.
24 Though they stumble, they will never fall,
    for the Lord holds them by the hand (NLT).

take comfort in the fact that the Lord delights in you. He sees past our brokenness. He sees past our mistakes. He sees past our failures. through it all, He delights in us. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts. He delights in every detail of our lives.

something I have a tendency to do is to control. I tend to take control over areas of my life that do not need my control. there are only so many things I can control, one being the way I respond to certain situations and circumstances. besides that, there is not much in my control. delighting in the Lord helps me to release control back to Him. He already delights in every detail of my life, so I do not have to. He sees every part of me, knows every part of me, and delights in the plans He has for me.

the journey of delighting in the Lord can take time. it takes time to get to know someone. we delight in our friends and family because we know them. delight comes with a deep sense of knowing someone. of trusting someone. of getting someone.

just like we delight in our family and friends, we can delight in God as He delights in us.

the Hebrew word for “delight” is “anog”, which means to be soft, pliable, or delicate. delighting in the Lord is a form of humility and sacrifice. it helps us to turn our desires over to Him. we trust that He will give us our desires.

Skip Moen describes delight in this way,

“Delight – This word (‘anag) is used for a garment that is delicate or luxurious.  Here it means to feel great favor toward something.  But notice carefully the object of our delight.  It is not His forgiveness.  It is not His rescue.  It is not His blessings or promises.  This verse makes it clear that we do not delight in something God has done for us.  We are delighted in His person – in who He is.  Just like a fine piece of silk, the delight is not because of what can be done with the cloth, but because the cloth itself is so marvelous. The subject is desirable because it is attractive in and of itself.”

delighting in the Lord helps us to release our control back to Him. delighting looks different for different people. don’t think of delighting as something rigid. the Lord gave us our desires, our gifts, our talents, for a reason. discovering these with the Lord is a way of delighting.

there’s something called the Serenity Prayer, and it is often a prayer that I pray when I don’t know what to pray. it goes like this:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference.”

I’m not going to sugar coat it. delighting can be hard. not getting my desires can be hard. sometimes, I don’t understand why some things happen or don’t happen the way they do. but I find that when I focus my delight on Him, my attitude changes, the atmosphere shifts, and the enemy can’t win. David says in another Psalm, “those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10, NIV).

one way that I delight in the Lord is by writing out my desires. this helps me give my desires back to Him. this helps me make Him my first priority. this is something that I do frequently to remind myself He is in control. to remind myself to have faith that He works all things together for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28). when I practice this, there are a few songs that often play in the background to focus my gaze on Him.

these are a few songs that help me recenter my delight:

1. “eyes locked on the king”- Abbie Gamboa

2. “center”- Bethel Music, Abbie Gamboa

3. “nothing else”- Cody Carnes"

4. “known by You”- Gateway Worship, Jessie Harris

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (NLT).

when we seek His Kingdom, everything else falls into place.

keep seeking, keep knocking, keep delighting. He has your best in mind.