PJ's Prayer Line: Delightful Living

Good Evening to All!

First of All, let's look at the word "delight" We take this word too lightly. To delight ourselves in the Lord does not only mean be happy or enjoy, it means to focus on Him, to study Him and His Word. To learn as much as we can about Him. Just as we do when we enter into a relationship with our boyfriends, girlfriend, fiance's or spouses. We are delighting in each other wanting to learn as much about each other as possible. Our Father wants us to give Him the same amount of attention if not MORE. This is what is meant by delight ourselves in the Lord. The more we focus on Him, the more we learn about Him, the happier we will become and our desires, while in the beginning were " earth-minded" will change to be "like-minded with His desires as we will see that we want to strive to be more like Him and our desires will start appearing. Our main goal should be to "make HIM happy", follow His example, and strive toward perfection. While we will not reach it until the day of the "catching away" and we are changed, it is the journey that makes the difference. God sees the effort we put into living for Him, and doing His will and that is what will make the difference whether He will say "I knew you not, or "Well done thy good and faithful servant.

Delightful Living

T

oday's Seed: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

Most of us are drawn to the second half of this seed: "He will give you the desires of your heart." What are the desires of your heart? Have you fully realized them? If not, why not?

God tells us here, very specifically, all we have to do is "delight ourselves in the Lord and He will grant those desires. But what does it mean to "delight ourselves in the Lord"? Delight is a words that is tossed around. "I am delighted to meet you." "How was the meeting?" "Delightful!" We have removed the core essence of the word "delight" and made it into an automatic response, almost like answering "Fine" when asked, "How are you?"

We have also become so accustomed to not receiving the desires of our heart that we hardly know what it is we really want.

Is there any reason for the order of ideas presented in this seed? First, we are to delight ourselves in the Lord. This is a very specific instruction. Then, we will receive the desires of our heart.

Dig Deeper: The dictionary says delight means to "take great pleasure, find extreme satisfaction." Paul says in Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Paul is saying that delight means to rejoice in God more than in what He gives us.

Background Bulb: Many times we wait until God gives us what we want and then we delight in Him. It is easy to rejoice when things are going our way. But Paul teaches us that rejoicing or delighting the Lord is not dependent on our circumstances. Paul rejoiced when he was in prison. His singing and praising the Lord actually brought about his release. When we put our focus in the right place, God is free to do wonderful miracles in our lives.

Weed & Water: When we delight and rejoice in God, we take great pleasure in God for

who He is, not just what he does for us. Often lacking the desires of our heart makes it difficult for us to delight in the Lord. Our worries and fears may shift our focus off of God and onto our situation. If we commit those worries and fears to the Lord and trust him for resolution we can begin to find extreme satisfaction in Him. To help with this, make the word "delight" into a simple acrostic. This will remind you that that the secret to getting the desires of our hearts lies in Daily Everything Laid Into God's Hands Totally. (DELIGHT)

Think about it: What are the desires of your heart?

What keeps you from having the desires of your heart?

How can you shift your focus from your desires to delighting in the Lord?