Devo 46: His Pleasure over Us

“As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight…”

Psalm 16:3

Have you ever felt the pleasure of the Lord for you? Have you ever felt the delight He has—the sheer joy in being with you?

Most of us live our whole lives not knowing or experiencing the pleasure the Lord has in us. He loves interacting with us. He loves to be around us.

We mostly feel as if He was angry or upset with us when we do not do everything perfect.

On the contrary, His delight is in the sons of men (Prov. 8:31). He rejoices over us with gladness and singing (Zeph. 3:17).

Sometimes, when we are full of shame and condemnation, we do not want to approach Him, because we are afraid and we think He is angry with us. Part of this is out of a wrong understanding of the fear of the Lord, and part of it is a result of our life experience through interacting with people and ourselves.

However, the Lord is not like us. He can hate sin and love the person at the same time. He forgives and immediately forgets sin. When we repent, He instantly sees us in the same way that He sees Jesus—pure, holy, forgiven, beautiful…

As a result of this grace, we can boldly approach His throne with confidence (Heb. 4:16). We can enter His presence!

There are many ways to experience His presence. Sometimes, we experience His holiness and the fear of the Lord comes on us. As humans, we can usually only feel one emotion at a time, but with God, He is everything at once. Therefore, we have to realize that our experience is subject to what part of Himself He is revealing at the moment.

In His presence, at all times, there is holiness, majesty, and the fear of the Lord, but at all times, there is also joy. In His presence is the fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11). In His presence is the FULLNESS of joy! What does the fullness of joy feel like? What would it do to our hearts if we touched it? How would our view of God change if we could taste His joy?

David speaks of Jesus in Psalm 45:7 and He says, “The Lord has anointed you with the oil of gladness, greater than your companions…” Jesus was joyful! He is joyful! I believe David tasted a part of that joy. He begins this particular psalm by saying, “My heart is overflowing with a good theme!” (Ps 45:1).

How do we taste this joy? In part, we taste it as we look at who Jesus is. David was meditating/gazing on the fact that Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy. We have to believe that God is joyful and meditate on who He is, then we become like Him (II Cor. 3:18). This part takes faith, because sometimes, we have never experienced His joy. We start out by just believing it is true because the Word says it is, and so we begin to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:1-2).

Secondly, we have to break out of shame, condemnation, and self-accusation. We cannot do this without God’s sovereign deliverance; however, we begin by recognizing it as sin, repenting before God, and confessing our sins to another that we may be healed (Js 5:16, etc). Then as we stare at Him, we are able to see Him rightly instead of seeing Him through a distorted lens of our own experience of God that is not based in truth.

A third aspect of tasting His joy is by asking Him to reveal Himself to us as a Joyful God or Joyful Father. We have to pray for wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:17). He has to reveal it to us. Nothing we can do will earn God’s pleasure. Everything starts with Him. We love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:19).

However, this does not mean that if we are not experiencing His love or joy that He does not love us. It only means that He has not revealed that particular part of himself to us yet, and we have to trust that His leadership is perfect in every area of our lives. He knows exactly when and how to run in and rescue us in the time that we are most receptive and vulnerable to Him. He delivers us because He delights in us! (Ps. 18:19, II Sam 22:19-21).

So, this week, meditate on Psalm 16 and other scriptures about His joy. Meditate on the goodness of the Lord and His delight over you.

This week: 1.) Ask Him to break off shame and anything that would distort your view of Him; 2.) Confess your sins to Him and to a friend and ask for forgiveness; 3.) Ask Him to open your eyes and give you revelation of His joy; 4.) Ask Him to show you specific things He delights in about you; and 5.) Ask Him to give you the ability to receive His joy and ask Him fill you with His joy and love.

“Lord, I pray for an increased revelation of Your delight over us. I ask that you would changes our views of you as an angry God who is ashamed of us to a Joyful God who delights in us. Let us see you as Jesus sees You. Let us have a revelation of how you see us as you see Jesus. Open our eyes, Lord! Thank you for your Love! Amen.”

Love,

Amanda
 
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