Do you delight in God and His plans for you? What does it mean to delight in God? How can we delight in the plans He has for us? Let’s dig into today’s topic and find answers to these questions.
Delight in God & His Plans
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 37:4.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 ESV
This verse has intrigued me for years. And I loved it so much that I hand-painted it on a wall in one of our bedrooms. I used to think that if I delighted in God, He would give me whatever I wanted. That could be a great husband, wonderful kids, a well-paying job with a grand title, or a fancy car. I have many of those things I mentioned – except the fancy car. 🚘 😂 However, those desires were my selfish desires – not the ones that would be an output of putting my delight in God.
Delight in God: What does it mean?
The Hebrew word for delight is anag. From Day One of my devotional book: Rejoice in Your Work, I defined the word delight.
“The Hebrew word for delight means to be happy 😊 about or take exquisite delight in. Webster’s Dictionary defines exquisite, in this context, as “having uncommon appeal.”’
What I found out as I studied this word further was that I was not truly delighting in God. I thought that by doing Bible study, praying, and attending church each week, I was ‘delighting in God.’ Was I having an uncommon appeal in God? No, I was promoting my own selfish desires instead of God’s desires.
How do we Delight in God?
1. Humbly Surrender
We know that one of God’s commandments is to “have no other gods before him.” (Exodus 20:3 ESV) If our desires are selfish, we are taking control of our lives instead of God being in control. So how do we have God take control?
That first step is humbly surrendering control to God.
We need to recognize that God is the Sovereign ruler of this world. The word sovereign means supreme or ruler overall. When we take control, we are essentially saying that we don’t need to be in control or essentially, we are making ourselves and our desires an idol.
Before my job changed a few years ago, I was not happy with how things were going with my job. I was stressed and I felt that something was ‘off.’ During this time, the women’s Bible study that I lead was studying Proverbs. This verse in chapter 15 stuck out to me.
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
Proverbs 15:33 ESV
While reading this verse, tears welled up in my eyes and rolled down my face. 😭 “Humble me Lord so I can have your honor,” I prayed.
That prayer was the start of God changing me to do His desires instead of mine.
The the next day, I was given the choice of staying with the company in a different department or leaving completely. I wanted to run away from the situation. However, God had a different plan.
What about you?
Is there something that you are taking control over that you need to give to God? Surrender now. Your load will be lightened and He can be the one in control. He helps carry that weight and makes it lighter for us.
This reminds me of the verse where Jesus says,
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:29-30 ESV
The word picture is about a yoke that oxen wear to pull a heavy load. Most of us have a better context around horses than cows – unless you are on the farm. One horse can pull 1/10 of their weight which is a dead weight, like a tree. So if the horse weighs 2000 pounds, it can pull 200 pounds of dead weight. Now if you put that weight in a cart or trailer, they can pull 1.5 times their body weight or 3000 pounds. If you yoke two horses together, they can pull three times the weight of one horse or 6000 pounds. (This information is from this website: https://petkeen.com/how-much-weight-can-a-horse-pull/).
The point here is that with God’s yoke, the burdens we experience are so much lighter. And God being who He is, the burden is easy and light. The key for us is to rely on Him and get our strength from Him.
2. Seeking His Council in All Areas
The second step to delighting in God is to seek His council in all areas.
This means that we are in daily prayer about our big decisions in our lives. Those big decisions mean we need His input. The direction we take can affect the plans He has for us.
Recently, I have been praying about some things going on at my work and whether I should begin looking for a new job. I shared these concerns with a friend and asked her to pray.
This wise friend quoted this verse to me – which you will find me quote it often on my website, Gods Plan Guided Steps.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 ESV
You see, I felt like I shouldn’t be making plans to look for a new job without God’s okay to move forward. She reminded me of this verse (again!). We can make plans of looking for a new job and getting applications out there. But the Lord will establish our steps – meaning He will let me know which one is the best to accept and take my steps in that direction.
You may have heard the saying that God will close one door for an opportunity that we should pass up and open a window for opportunities that are the ones to take. This is exactly what this verse is referring to.
Whew! I was relieved to know that I could quit worrying about whether I was taking the wrong steps. I can take steps forward and God will let me know when and where to move forward.
What was the result of my Delight in God?
Once I truly delighted in Him, He gave me the desires of my heart. How did that happen? My desires came in alignment with His. His desires became my desires. Therefore, He gave me the desires of my heart.
His Plans for You
We know that His plans for us are good. That is clear to us in Jeremiah 29:11.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
If you don’t know the context of this verse, click on the show notes for today’s episode. I have a post that describes how the Israelites were held captive away from their homes and were down in the dumps about it. God reassured them that despite being in this situation, He had a plan and it was GOOD. It was so good that they could live where they were and have hope for their future.
What do we do while we wait for His plans to unfold?
We trust Him. Do we sit back and wait? NO! We move forward and lean on Him. Another one of my favorite verses is:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
There are some decisions we can make without him – like what to eat, clothes to wear, or where to live. But there are big decisions that we should get His input on – making big purchases like a car or a house, going to college or not, and whether we should stick it out in a job that is unsatisfying or leave.
Whatever the decision is, we need to lean on Him and not our own. Can we take steps forward? Certainly! This is what I was referring to a few minutes ago about applying for jobs.
The key to all of this is trusting Him with all of our hearts. Is that easy? Nope. Some days it will be hard.
Three Steps to Daily Trust Him
Here is three steps that we can do to trust Him, daily!
- Pray about God taking the load and making it lighter for us. Pray through Matthew 11:29-30 and ask God to make your load easy and light. In addition, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your day and infuse you with His strength.
- And when the enemy is trying to get us down and hope is waining, we need to take those negative thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV). We need to pray, “Lord – take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ!” Then replace those negative thoughts with thoughts that are pure, lovely, and true (Philippians 4:8 ESV).
- Enlist your friends to pray. Send them a text, email, or call them and let them know you need some prayer. They will bring your request before God’s throne and the day will turn around! He did that for me recently when I was having a hard day, He can do it for you.
Summary: Delight in God & His Plan for You
Remember – to delight in God, it is important to humbly surrender our own desires to God and seek His council in all our ways each day. And in doing His plan for us, we need to trust Him daily with all our hearts.
