Transformed Tuesday: Delight Yourself!

Delight yourself!

Aren’t those freeing words! Isn’t it amazing how much life and energy four little syllables can give to an ordinary breath?

Delight yourself...

To Delight!

According to the dictionary, delight means a “high degree of pleasure or joy.”  So who among us would turn away such a gift? And yet we do. Every day.

We give up delight.

We give up pleasure.

We give up joy.

Because we’ve put our delight in something or someone other than the Lord. 

I wonder, do we stop delighting in the Lord first or do we start delighting in something else?  We foolishly choose to pursue all sorts of opportunities and relationships, convinced they will fulfill the desires of our hearts — and bring us the joy we crave — only to find out they won’t.

Ordinary people will fail us miserable.

The next great accomplishment will fade quickly under the pressure to perform again.

So why don’t we learn from our mistakes and invest in seeking after the One who promises us to give us the desires of our heart when we delight in Him? Maybe it is simply a side effect of the fall, as we’ve been deceived by the enemy at work, thinking that this thing or that person will bring joy into our life.  Or maybe it is because we haven’t seen it modeled often enough to believe it.  Maybe both.

Learning the Dance of Delight

God is painstakingly teaching me to delight in Him, even as He gives me the desires of my heart. For years, I’ve prayed on and off about writing about a book especially for tween and teenage girls and the women who love them, and for years, I never had a peace about going forward with the idea. Instead, the Lord led me to launch More to Be with the purpose of impacting the next generation through equipping moms and mentors with all these (and these) resources.

Well, this past spring, I had this ah-ha moment with the Lord in which I felt He was challenging me to give up my preconceived ideas about publishing (along with my fears), and consider finding an agent to figure out the next step.  I didn’t have a concrete book idea in mind, and actually, I was thinking about the next step for Impact My Life.  So I talked with my husband and, to my complete amazement, he agreed it was the right time to move forward in faith.

We decided we’d pray for the next few months before doing anything, especially because I wanted to be sure that I was in the right place to not make an idol of this endeavor.  I did not want to delight in the dream instead of  in the Lord.  Well, guess what? Before I did anything, an agent contacted me. Can you believe that in less than week, I received an email from the most loveliest of all agents? And, get this:  Her idea for the book I should write was the concept I gave up years ago!

In the next two months, the Lord poured out through my finger tips the entire proposal and first three chapters. In June, it was sent out to an amazing group of publishers. It left my hands with peace in my heart. I knew God was in all of this and was ready to wait for the outcome. I was delighting in Him, His work, His purposes, and there was a palpable joy in my heart.  And then, it was time to wait.

Would the joy remain?

From day one, I knew this was a risky business, and the odds are in my favor for rejection considering I am writing for a niche market.  I have no doubt that He will use the process and the content already written for His purposes, but the question I wrestle with is whether it be through one of the publishers considering the proposal or some other way?  And there is the rub.  If I put my hope in God giving me what I want — my desires — I position myself to be robbed of joy. But if I put my hope, my focus, my surrender into the One whose in charge of the outcome, I can’t help but end up with a fullness of joy.

So I’ve been honest with God, as I’ve questioned His purposes, “Lord what is your plan? Oh. You don’t want to tell me. You want me to wait and trust you. Hah. Sure. Well, I beg you to help me focus entirely on You. Lord, I want to be a woman who delights in you more than the desires of my own heart. Amen.”  What does God say to me in return?  Well, it sounds like an ongoing anthem playing in my mind and heart to simply delight in Him, as He also reminds me to turn away from the whispers of the enemy.  There is this constant, prodding and pushing — maybe from my own flesh, maybe from the world — that sounds like: “You should do something about this or you’ll be miserable.”  What a lie! 

What can I do but glorify God in my every day living and overflow His work from my finger tips?

The joy we long for comes from delighting in God and trusting Him with the desires of our heart. {tweet this}

Chasing down everything but Jesus promises anything but joy. {tweet this}

I am determined to delight in the Lord, regardless of what is tugging on my heart away from Him.

What about you?

 

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Next week’s key verse:

James 2:23 ESV

This is what the Scriptures mean by saying,
“Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him.”
That’s how Abraham became God’s friend.

2 thoughts on “Transformed Tuesday: Delight Yourself!”

  1. I was struggling this afternoon with being content where God has me – with the circumstances and people I want to change but aren’t. I was praying for God’s direction and this really touched and challenged me. I have been putting my hope in things other than just delighting in God. Your words have helped me to refocus on God. Thank you!

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