Saturday, July 30, 2022

 

Did You Know That God Takes Pleasure in You?  


Last weekend we were able to take the two-and-a-half-hour trip to visit our son and his family. One of the reasons we were excited to do so is because we have a one-year-old grandson there who is constantly changing and growing up all too quickly. Children and grandchildren are precious to us. We don’t view it as simply an obligation to go see them occasionally – it’s something we deeply desire to do. We especially delight in our grandchildren and want to spend time with them. It reminds me of a video I saw of one of our friends who is also a grandparent. She was able to fly up north to visit some of her grandkids she had not seen for a while. The video showed her grandson reading her a book shortly after her arrival. Our friend’s face was just beaming with joy expressing how thrilled she was to be able to be there and how much delight those grandchildren gave her.

Do we ever picture God in that way? Does it seem strange to think that the Lord takes such pleasure in us when we come to Him in prayer, when we gather with others to worship Him, or when we do some act of service in His name? On the one hand, the Bible tells us to delight in the Lord. However, we sometimes need to remind ourselves that God’s Word reveals the truth that He also delights in us. In Psalm 149:4 it says, “The Lord takes pleasure in His people.” A couple of psalms earlier, it declares the same truth, along with a description of who His people are - “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy” (Psalm 147:11).

Sometimes we get the idea that our Heavenly Father is simply tolerating us. Certainly, we are guilty of often trying His patience. We can be thankful that the Lord is longsuffering toward us. Nevertheless, in spite of our shortcomings and faults, in spite of how we’ve disappointed Him at times, and in spite of how our faith has faltered, He delights in us and considers us to be precious. One of those Sunday School songs some of us learned in our younger days reminds us that Jesus loves all the children of the world and they are precious in His sight. That truth doesn’t just apply to little tykes. It applies to all of God’s children – all those who are trusting Jesus as our Savior. We are precious to Him!

It can be easy to lose that sense of His pleasure if we’re not careful. Rough roads and hard times can make us wonder why a sovereign God is allowing us to experience such trials. Our own failure to perfectly follow our Father’s will can cause us to sense His disappointment more than His pleasure. Sometimes we can even misconstrue the way He’s working in our lives to guide us, correct us, and encourage us to keep growing as signs of His displeasure with us rather than as indications of His great love for us. Like a child who complains that his parents are always “on his case”, we can feel like the Lord is always pushing and punishing us rather than recognizing that out of His love for us our Heavenly Father is trying to help us and do what’s best for us.

If you’ve been feeling inadequate or as if you are a disappointment to God, let Him remind you how precious you are to Him today. If you’re a child of God through faith in Jesus, be assured that the Lord takes pleasure in you. You are precious in His sight.

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