God's Delight in Us

 

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"The Lord your God is in your midst, a Warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with joy; He will be quiet in His love [making no mention of your past sins], He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy" (Zephaniah 3:17 AMP 2015).

"The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the Lord, and He delights in his way [and blesses his path]" (Psalm 37:23 AMP 2015).

"The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love" (Psalm 147:11 NIV).

"For the Lord takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with salvation" (Psalm 149:4 NIV).

"...the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:4b-5 NIV).

"...You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy" (Micah 7:18b NIV).

When we are His people, humble and righteous in Christ, fearing Him and hoping in Him, God delights in us. He pours it over us unsparingly, to overflowing; He gives us His best because we are worth it to Him. And when we will delight ourselves in Him--with extravagant, scrumptious delight--he will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).

Jesus and Psychology

 

Think about the religious people you've known in your life. Even those who considered themselves Christians. Even the actual Christians. If your experience was anything like mine, you knew a lot of people who believed they had to do good to gain heaven. Who believed that when they died, God would weigh their deeds in some scale, and if the good outweighed the bad St. Peter would open the gates, and if the bad outweighed the good, they'd be sentenced to the fire. And most of them had no inkling what their fate would be. 

Does that mess with your head, or what?

How do people handle life in the face of this? Some walk away, deciding to believe none of it--which means illogically believing their decision makes it true. This is the equivalent of plugging their ears and singing, "Nananana." Others shrug and figure the scale will tip in their favor because they're good people. But they can't be sure, so they don't think about it much. Still others will decide that whatever "better place" comes next, we all go there and pretty much deserve to. Again, betting their life that this arbitrary belief is true. And then there are those who knock themselves out doing good deeds, because they want to please and appease a God who's looking for reason to club them over the head (this angry God who needs to be placated is probably the attitude I most encountered in childhood). 

And what does all this do to us? It traps us in worry, striving, and uncertainty. Or it causes otherwise logical people to plug their ears and sing "Nananana" concerning their eternal destiny. Or to adopt beliefs that have no basis--which we try not to do in the rest of life--because they soothe. (Ironically, this is often what unbelievers accuse us of doing.) Will those who are working for the reward be good enough for it? Even if they are, can they keep it up? Will they fall into a cycle of feeling good about themselves and then horrible about themselves? Does any of this sound like decent mental or spiritual health?

The fact that God accepts us in Jesus Christ and therefore we do good works out of joy and security is the exact inverse. We serve Him because He loves us, not to make Him love us. Security in Christ is the key to freedom from the angst caused by religion as performance. For example, we don't use our hobbies, talents, and occupations to earn points, but to serve others. We don't go to church to be seen, but to gather. We don't do good to our neighbor because it will place a chit on the "good" side of our scale, but to genuinely help in Jesus' name--in other words, really loving our neighbor. We don't chase a full slate of earthly activities to feel good about ourselves or be seen as do-gooders, but as gifts from God that we can share. And we do this from a position of rest in the finished work of Christ. Life without Him is simply nerve-wracking.

Doesn't faith in God, then, shift human psychology? I think it does. My prayer is that some of the mental health crises in our world can be improved or avoided simply by more people coming to Jesus Christ. I believe it would make a bigger difference than we dare hope. 

Of Flipping Through the Bible and Psalm 91

 

When my husband and I were new Christians, we joined a home fellowship that, unbeknownst to us, was a wee bit radical in certain ways. The wonderful thing about this group, besides the introduction to other believers, was its central focus: "We don't care what a denomination teaches if it doesn't match Scripture. We want to know what the Bible says!" Getting thrown in the deep end, as far as the Bible was concerned, was the best thing that could have happened to me.

Some of the people, some of the time, practiced what they called "breaking Scripture." If they had a question, faced a decision, etc., they opened the Bible at random and took advice from whatever passage their finger landed on. Of course, the temptation to misuse this didn't take long to rear its head, and soon the exercise was jokingly called "Bible roulette." 

And of course, I tried it. Once in a while? Used judiciously? Marvelously apropos answers came forth, words that made my breath catch with their relevance to my need. Too often? Used routinely? The passages "received" bore less and less relation to my concern, and I understood that these attempts to hear from God were trying to shortcut the building of relationship. God can and sometimes will speak this way, but He doesn't use formulas and the Bible is not a crystal ball. 

I do still open the Bible at random, though. Not because I'm looking for a sign to help me choose between Fork A or Fork B on the road of life, but maybe because I want to read the word but I'm not sure exactly where. Or because I just want to dive in somewhere. Or because I want to see where God will draw my attention. I opened the Bible at random just now, and--kind of tied in with all the foregoing--landed on a chapter I prayed through with someone just yesterday. When God repeats Himself, I have learned to pay attention. 

I'm speaking of Psalm 91, which I think of as the protection psalm. I've known people who prayed this for their soldiers every day and they returned from tours of duty unharmed. One man in the aforementioned home group claimed it as his insurance policy--seriously--in lieu of health insurance (and perhaps other kinds; I never asked) for his family. Granted, this was back in the days before "in-network" and "out-of-network" and before every single dealing with a doctor was cost-prohibitive. But you know what? Nothing ever happened to them, either. And they had eight kids.

Just what is the power of faith in His word, if we will exercise it?

Father, I pray the promises of Psalm 91 over all who read these words. May we dwell in Your shelter and rest in Your shadow, simply for the joy of living there and not only to gain the other benefits. But we do ask Your promises to apply to us: safety from the fowler's snare, pestilence, terror, attack, and destruction. Cover us, and let Your faithfulness be our shield. Let Your protections extend to our families--all who live in or are from "our tent." Thank You that Your angels protect us--even us--when we aren't aware of it. Thank You for victory over the lions and cobras of life, and help us choose to overcome them when they threaten and not give in to them. We are those who love You, know Your name, trust in You, and call upon You, and we receive Your rescue, Your answers, Your presence, Your honor--honor, Lord, for us!--Your length of life, and all the good things You have for us who stay the course on the narrow road to life. We set our love on You, Lord, as verse 14 says, the Hebrew indicating a type of love that "hugs tightly." We hug You tightly, knowing that since we have a Savior who can make it through a storm at sea sleeping on a cushion, we are never outside Your care when we are in Your presence. Amen.

Jesus

Isn't it just amazing that life can be summed up in one word: Jesus. And not just summed up, but contained. 

"For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption [because of His sacrifice, resulting in] the forgiveness of our sins [and the cancellation of sins' penalty]. He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.] He is also the head [the life-source and leader] of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will occupy the first place [He will stand supreme and be preeminent] in everything. For it pleased the Father for all the fullness of deity--the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son), and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace [with believers] through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded [toward Him], participating in evil things, yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach." 

(Colossians 1:13-22, AMP 2015)

In Jesus, all things hold together. 

If a coin appears in a fish's mouth because He said it would, if a crowd can be fed on five loaves and two fish, if a storm swamps our boat yet Jesus can sleep--what need can't He supply? What doesn't owe its existence to Him? Worry, where is your sting?

Jesus. The Way, the Truth, the Life. The Word. The Blood. The Resurrection. The Ascension. 

Jesus. 

Thank You, Father, for blessing us with the name of Jesus.