Monday, February 20, 2012

Power to Delight

Happy n' snowy President's Day! The snow is not predicted to be a major problem, but you may face some difficulties in getting to work this morning. Difficulties that might just make you wonder whether it is worth it on a cold Monday morning. Oh, how discouraging am I this morning? You don't need to read that kind of thing! You need a happy jack to lift you up this morning. Hmm, don't seem to have one of those around, and I'm not even sure what a 'happy jack' would look like. In place of that, we can all delight in the Lord this morning. What does that mean anyway? How exactly does one delight in the Lord? I would start with prayer. Start with a prayer of thanksgiving, come to the prayer with a smile on your face. That sounds difficult too.

Often we come to the Lord burdened with a load of cares and responsibilities. This is not to be wondered at. We are to come to Jesus when we are heavily burdened and receive rest. That isn't my idea; Jesus said it himself. This world does tend to pile on the cares for us. Every day in the news, we can find many who need our prayers, and that does not include all the people we know and love already. No doubt the boss will have a load of responsibilities waiting for you at work this morning as well. Speaking of those we know and love, which among them do you just like to see. You know them, the ones that bring a smile to your countenance just by showing up. You delight in their company, often during those times when you are not sure that you even want company around. It may not be that person is even particularly happy most times, but you still like to see him or her (or him and her in the case of couples.) We are to delight in the Lord in the same way. In fact, it is the Lord who gives us the power to delight in the company of others.

Power to delight is not some misnamed phrase either. We will naturally see the faults in many folks. At least I haven't met the perfect person yet, other than our Lord Jesus that is. We need God's living word in our hearts to see past what we think is wrong and learn to love and delight in all people. Why do I write, 'think is wrong'? Much of what we may think is wrong in another person may not be viewed that way by God. As a creation of a loving Creator, we all have attributes that are just perfect for what God would have us to do in His kingdom. That very attribute may be an irritation to another person. As the 'other person', we need to remember that love is not irritable as our mentor Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 13. The power to delight, the power to not be irritable, it seems that we ask a lot of our Lord today. Praise God that He has much to give!

Delight in the day!
Bucky

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