TRUE DELIGHT

by Prof. Dr. Soundararaj Chelliah (President)

October 01, 2018

in Message of the Month

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This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Monthly Promise

Monthly Promise

Psalm 37:4→ “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart.”

Greetings in the precious and matchless, powerful and glorious Name of our Father God, His beloved Son and His Holy Spirit. Psalm 37 is a powerful and practical guidebook for life. Within its first eight verses are rich insights for finding real joy and ridding yourself of negative thinking. The 4th. verse is such a powerful verse which gives a condition to get our desires – to lead a delightful life in the Lord.

On October 2nd. 1971, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and this verse helped me realize that my dreams and desires were important to God and that in fact He valued my dreams. But as life went on, I also realized that in following God wholeheartedly, dreams change. He is able to take old dreams and replace them with dreams that only He could have imagined for me. So take time to ponder over your dreams. Ask yourself if you are giving God room in your life to take and leave those dreams. If you are not, I encourage you to hold your dreams with an open palm. God has something planned for each one of us that is greater than we could have ever imagined.

To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in his or her presence. That happens only when we know the person well. To delight in the Lord means not simply that we know God, but that we know him well. To make sure we can know God as deeply and intimately as God wants us to know Him, the Lord came to us in Jesus Christ and lived with us so that we could meet Him in person. He showed His love in countless ways, taught and challenged us to live for God’s kingdom, prayed for us, gave up His own life as the payment for our sin, and rose to life again in victory over sin and death—all for our sake! To know God is to know Jesus and take delight in him!

Psalm 37:1-8 reads: “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret–it leads only to evil.”

This Psalm gives us “do-not” commands, behaviors we must leave behind to find God’s blessing and peace. Do not worry or be envious (verse 1). Let each day find you grateful for what God has given you. Do not be an angry, vindictive individual (verse 8). Forgive as you have been forgiven; practice gentleness and self-control.

But this Psalm also gives us positive actions we need to take to bring us into alignment with God’s plan for living joyfully. 1. Trust in the Lord (verse 3) – Whatever bothers you, trust God to be able to handle it better than you can. 2. Do good (verse 3) – Life is about choices. Know that God will honor you when you do the right thing. 3. Delight yourself in the Lord (verse 4) – Fall in love with Jesus. Take time every day to sit quietly in his presence. Learn to delight in him. 4. Commit your way to the Lord (verse 5) – Trust all you do, every day, all your life, to God; he is able to handle it best. 5. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him (verse 7) – This does not mean to do nothing. Rather, it means that after you have done all you can, you should relax in the knowledge that God will take care of the rest.

In our country free advice blares from everybody we meet, whether you know them personally or not. If you are sick, people visit you to encourage you and they become doctors and they give medical advices! Most of us Christians take the advice of men and women and fail to get advice from the Lord.

Finally, how do we get to know God? It begins with God, actually, for God is the One Who has created us, provided for us, and made clear to us that He is our Creator and Savior. And God calls us to trust in Him and live by His ways, to commit ourselves wholly to Him, entrusting our lives, families, jobs, possessions—everything—to His control and guidance. We grow to recognize that God can care for us better than we can care for ourselves. Along the way we also learn to be patient and willing to wait for God to work out what is best for us. The Psalmist, in Psalm 16 says, “I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my innermost self] rejoices; My body too will dwell [confidently] in safety” (Vs. 8,9).

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and the result will be, as we read in Vs.11 of the same Psalm (16), “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”

Believe, dear Brothers and Sisters, Youngsters, that He holds us with His right hand! In Isaiah 41, verses 9, 10 and 13, “You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled]. ‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you; I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].”

With this promise God is holding your right hand and leading you into a new month. “May the Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you]; May the Lord make His face shine upon you [with favor], and be gracious to you [surrounding you with lovingkindness]; and May the Lord lift up His countenance (face) upon you [with divine approval], and give you peace [a tranquil heart and life].”

Prayer: Father, help me to truly understand what it means to “delight” in You, and through that, God, place within me the desires and passions that you would have for me. Make Your will for my life known through my simple obedience to You. Amen.

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