Statements of Faith - I Delight Myself In The Lord

 

PSALM 37:4

Delight yourself in The LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

SPEND TIME WITH HIM IN PRAYER

Matthew 7:7, 8

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 

Matthew 6:9-13 is an example of prayer that Jesus gives His disciples. 

(9) Acknowledge Who God Is and that He is holy, recognize that we are not, then 

(10) Receive His kingdom [Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38], Surrender and submit to His will [Romans 12:1-3; Psalm 63]

(11) Ask for and receive that which God desires us to have daily

(12) Ask for forgiveness every day for the sins we have committed and receive it, because we are forgiving those who have sinned against us (don't retain bitterness, don't hold grudges against anyone), knowing that God will forgive us as much as we have forgiven others [Matthew 6:14; Mark 11:25]

(13) Pray for strength to withstand temptations and be separated from such [Luke 22:40; John 17:15; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Thessalonians 3:3)

MEDITATE IN THE LORD (ponder, think about)

Psalm 19:14

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 104:34

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

STUDY HIS WORD

2 Timothy 2:15

Study to shew yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing The Word of Truth.

Ephesians 1:13

And in Him, having heard and believed The Word of Truth--the gospel of your salvation--you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 

Ezra 7:10

For Ezra had set his heart to study The Law of The LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER Casting Crowns

WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE LORD 

ANCIENT WORDS  Robin Mark

GIVE ME WORDS TO SPEAK Aaron Shust

A Crucified Life - - Answers The Call to Delight In The Lord

 

    Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

    To delight one's self in The LORD is to take great joy in The LORD's presence. It is to live in Him, to spend our time with Him. 

    This is how our soul prospers. And that is the definition of success in our Christian walk. The closer we walk with Jesus the more our hearts' desires align with The Father's heart and desire. 

    The Number One desire of The Father and ourselves is the salvation of all (John 6:40). It is to all we are sent by The Son (Mark 16:15), so into all the world we go, preaching the gospel of Good News. If this desire, this will of God, is not in our hearts, then we are not delighting ourselves in Him. 

    With salvation comes forgiveness. If we have unforgiveness in our hearts, then our hearts are not aligned with The Father's heart. Until we repent of our unforgiving hearts and let go of all bitterness, anger and hate, we cannot expect forgiveness from God. Nor can we expect God to hear and answer our prayers on behalf of anyone else. 

    In salvation is forgiveness through repentance; only then is mercy shown to us by God. For we have believed on the Name of The Only Begotten Son of God Jesus Christ. Only then is the blood applied to our hearts to wash away the stain and stench of our unrighteous behavior and wicked thoughts. 

    Through salvation comes a desire to live a holy life. For now we are walking By Faith on the Way of Holiness. We cannot see what lies ahead in life, but we can trust God to lead the way. 

    The Second desire of The Father is that all be baptized by water as a public confession of what has happened in their hearts (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19). The third desire of The Father is to receive The Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5, 8).

    The Fourth desire of our Heavenly Father is that all be made disciples of The Word, which, simply put, means to progressively grow/mature in The Word as we learn it. And then we are to take what we have learned and share it with someone else. Like I'm doing right now.

    The Fifth desire of our Heavenly Father is that He desires our worship, for, as His Word says, "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3) and "My Name is Jealous" (Exodus 34:14). Psalm 29:2 and Psalm 96:10 tell us to "Worship God in all His splendor, in the beauty of holiness". 

    We are created to spend time with God. God chose us to be His. But each of us has to make the individual choice to choose Him back. He's not going to force Himself into our hearts (Revelation 3:20). He waits for our response. 

    Is your heart aligned yet with God's? Are you receiving the desires of your heart at this point? What are you waiting for?

CALLED TO DELIGHT

You Give Life - Victory Worship

Joy - For King & Country

Shout To The Lord - Darlene Zschech

God of Wonders - Third Day

Praise The Lord - Micah Tyler

Amadeo - Ryan Stevenson

The River - Jordan Feliz

What Are We Waiting For? - For King & Country

All My Delight - The Belonging Co.

Arming The Spiritual Warrior -- Rejoice Always

 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Rejoice evermore.

*Strong's No 5463

REJOICE: to delight in God's grace; to experience God's grace (favor); to be consciously glad of God's grace

One cannot unconsciously rejoice, nor can a person subconsciously rejoice in God's grace. We must be cognate, aware, of God's grace. For we cannot obtain what we cannot even be aware of. 

It is why so many die in their sins. If they are not aware they are sinners, then they cannot be saved; especially after death. We must realize in this life we are given that not only God Is, but that God Is Savior. That He is Savior through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, through the blood which Christ shed on the cross, which takes away the sins of the world: John 1:29 "The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."

Realization of this as fact must come through an awareness of wrongdoing, which is followed by repentance (a confession of and turning away from sins). Then our hearts are filled with God's grace and we begin to live a disciplined, godly lifestyle.   

Philippians 4:4

 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 94:19

In the multitude of my thoughts within me (anxieties, cares) Your comforts delight my soul.

Psalm 104:34

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

Always. Evermore. At all times. Regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we are to rejoice in the Lord. Our joy must begin in God and be fulfilled by God. Without a relationship with God there can be no joy, no reason to rejoice. But in God, in His name, in His character, in His power we can have joy. It helps us to think on God's Word, thereby getting into our thoughts. It helps us to read God's Word, getting it into our hearts. We must believe God's Word is Faithful & True, that the Holy Spirit may be able to bring it to our lips to speak God's Word God's Power with God's Love. 

2 Corinthians 6:10

As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Matthew 5:12

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

We will know sorrow, pain and grief in this life. We will suffer for our faith. Some of us will die for what we believe. Yet, we are rejoicing. Joy is not an opposite of sorrow, it complements it. When we know what we know what we know, we can truly Rejoice! in the Lord for we are confident that He will keep His promises. For God cannot lie. 

As Job has said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him: but I will maintain (prove) mine own ways before Him." (Job 13:15) 

We are confident that our testimony, our faith in our Redeemer, Who has purchased us with His own blood, will stand as our witness when we are judged by God. 

If you have not this confidence, there is still time. Even now, your heart tells you that what I speak of God's Word is True. Even now, the Holy Spirit convicts your hearts and you feel a pinch in your spirit. May you surrender your hearts and your lives to Jesus Christ as the Word flows over you, may it also enter you. 

Delighting In The Lord:Psalm 37

For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your face to God. 
Job 22:26

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalm 37:4

“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13, 14

You know what these four verses have in common? 

      Which means "Pliable, soft, live in enjoyment of". While I understand the enjoyment part, I would not have connected pliable or soft with it. And, yet, God did say that when we surrendered our hearts to Him, he would remove the stony heart and replace it with a fleshy heart. In other words, our hardened sinful hearts would be replaced with a heart that is pliable, soft, more easily moldable, shapeable into what He desires our hearts to be.

     But just how do we get to the Delight part of this walk? Not all of what God wants to reveal to us in His Word is going to be revealed all at once. When I was reading Isaiah 58:13 the other night, the Holy Spirit opened it up to my understanding. 

• Turn away my foot from doing my pleasure on God's holy day. Don't go where I want to go, go where God wants me to go. Choose to walk where God wants me to walk. 
• Call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. Whether we call the holy day of the Lord the sabbath or Sunday, we are to call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. A pleasant day to be in God's presence. It is a day to honor God with our presence, fully surrendered and committed to doing what He wants us to do on His holy day; not what we used to do or feel pressured to do just because "everybody else is doing _____". Choose to spend the whole day with God.
• Honor Him, not doing what I/we want to do, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. Whereas, once upon a Sunday, we looked forward to family time or sports time or however we would spend our Sundays, now that we belong to Him, our Sundays are not our Sundays: Sunday belongs to God. 

     Romans 12:1 tells us to surrender our bodies a living sacrifice. While it is talking about a surrendered life in Christ, it also concerns our lifestyles. No longer do we do, nor behave how we lived when we were sinners, but now we live according to the terms of our surrender to God. We chose Him as the Savior and Deliverer of our souls. Now we choose Him as Lord of our lives; we willingly sacrifice what our flesh wants to do and submit to what the Spirit of God wants us to do. And when we truly, honestly love the Lord our God, then we become quite willing to turn over every aspect of our lives, including how we spend our Sundays. 

     For me personally, this will include shutting off the television on Sundays. There is not a whole lot on the idiot box that honors God on any day of the week, much less Sunday. And I will taper off on computer time, as well. But that is what is changing in my home. How you choose to spend or change your Sunday/sabbath is between you and God. My hope is that as you open yourself up to God, He reveals Himself to you. And He will; His Word says so and God does not lie. “They that seek Me early shall find Me.”  Proverbs 8:17