He Delights in Me

He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.  Psalm 18:19

I’ve been thinking about this text the last several days.  I believe it has a principle in it that is so very important to our freedom…emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  It is the issue of being delighted in.  If we do not have an awareness of being delighted in as a child, or get an experience of it as we mature, I am thinking that there is a real problem when it comes to being delivered of anything. 

I say this because this week I had my first experience of being delighted with me.  It was phenomenal.  It was as if in this experience I could feel that I am a beautiful, delightful person.  It has given me a great deal of peace…kind of like I have found something that has been missing all my life.  It feels like contentment with me. 

Sometimes we play little.  It is false humility.  I have to be less than so others can feel they are more than.  We have probably all done it.  Christians, in particular, get trapped in this because we do not correctly understand humility.  Moses was called the most humble man on earth.  The correct definition of humility is obedience to God.  Humility that is obedient to God has the strength of Moses in standing up to people.  This humility worships God; not people.

I work with folks every day who are full of self-hate. I have done my own work on that.  I think it is because we have never been delighted in, or as we grew the struggle to be ourselves got in the way of what others wanted us to be.  We learn very quickly that if others are happy with us, it feels better.  We confuse this feeling with acceptance, significance, love, etc.  When we get older it wears us out trying to please all these gods in our lives.  We learn that there is no way to please everyone.  The message we get is that we are not delightful.

 I saw this picture on facebook of a man holding a little child.  The caption: It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair an adult.  Choose your words wisely.  Wow!  In your mind’s eye see yourself in the arms of God.  See Him delighting in you.

Since I have only just had this experience of being delighted with myself, I cannot speak deeply about it, but I think that maybe we should each make it a matter of prayer…ask God to show us, tell us, give us His eyesight and His feeling for us.  I would like to hear from you about your experience.  We love because He first loved us.  That is another way of saying “delighted.” 

We are so in works mode.  That is man-centered.  Let us move to love mode.  I do not mean a nod to love.  I mean the real stuff…the awareness that He delights in us and delivers us.  Reclaim God’s original intent for you.  He promises that He will restore what the locust has eaten. 

 

I feel much more relaxed.  I think it may be that when you can see/know yourself as delightful, you are no longer trying to fill up the voids and empty places of your soul.  What others think just doesn’t matter.  Even responsibility issues take on a different color...they feel less heavy.   

 

God is love.  He delights in us.  He delivers us.  See the parent delighting in the little child.  See the child delighting in herself because she has the Father's love...the Father's heart.