Enjoy God

In Psalm 37:4 David makes this statement

Delight yourself in the Lord

        and he will give you the desires of your heart.

David's statement here in Psalm 37 literally means it is God's will for us to take great pleasure in him. It is not his plan that we just obey him and trudge along the road of faith, grimly trying to hold on until the end. Yes, we need to fear, honor, obey, serve and glorify God and at the same time, enjoy him.

David's words are in the form of an admonition or command. That would seem to indicate that enjoying God isn't always the natural thing to do, even by those who know him quite well. There are times when we just need to be told: "Look at life differently. Delight yourself in the Lord. Just enjoy him and what he is doing.

Someone may say, "But if you have to tell a person to enjoy something, isn't there something wrong with the picture?" Not really. At different times in my life, I have had friends tell me "Tom, what you need to do is go home and enjoy your family" or "What you need to do is take your wife to dinner and just enjoy her." These were always helpful challenges that brought good results.

We need to ask ourselves from time to time, "Am I enjoying God?" If we are not, we don't have to wait for some feeling to mysteriously wash over us or for the church to plan some special program. We can remind ourselves that our God is an awesome God, focus on the reasons that is true and decide that we are going to delight in him.

         

Focus Scriptures

1 Timothy 6:27

Command those who are rich in thie present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

     my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy

     and I will give thanks to him in song.