True Delight

In all our earnest desire to please the Lord, we pray. We worship and maybe even fast to show the Lord how much we truly love Him. We fellowship with the saints and help the poor and needy as way of bringing the utmost pleasure to God's heart.

So this morning as I prayed, cried and read His Word the Holy Spirit gently spoke to my heart. I turned to Matthew 6:33 in the NIV it reads, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

In all my seeking and passionate yearning for Christ, it was His righteousness, not my own that should be my one desire. Of course, I thought, every thing else in life takes a back seat for His kingdom. Family concerns, work, health, paying the bills etc.

Then the Holy Spirit at once spoke to my heart, "Don't worry about pleasing me. You delight me."

How often do we come before God with an honest and sincere heart. We cry out to Him because we want to be pleasing to Him in every thing we do, but then we cross a line into a place of anxiety. We aren't even aware of it until God has to gently stop us. Our sincere desire to please Him shifts to a place of worrying that it's not enough. So we strive, sweat and labor for hours in prayer and reading His word when we ought to simply rest in Him.

Yes, reading the Scriptures and praying is very important and necessary but we need to learn what it means to lean on His Word alone. No amount of effort on our part will be pleasing to God. We obey Him because we trust in Him and we do this because we have learned our own works add nothing to what He has already done. This message is not to the lazy or indifferent who do little to seek God, rather to the men and women who are truly desirous of God's kingdom above all else in their lives. There is a balance of grace and engagement in our relationship with God. Moments of work punctuated by times of rest.

I'm reminded of a child who in the eyes of their father or mother is pleasing. The child may not always be pleasant or please the parents, but there is a joy and delight in the eyes of the parent when they look at their child. God looks upon us with His delight even on our worse days when we fail or when we neglect Him.

All He truly wants is our hearts - hearts that can rest in His delight toward us!