He Delights In Me?

Good Monday! Do you delight in providing your children with things for them to play with? Do you delight in giving to the poor? Do you delight when a situation is most dire for a friend, but you have the solution? Of course you do! Why do we then think that God is stand-offish, or distant, or somehow just loves to see us suffer? We are His children now through faith in Christ. He delights in our well being. He delights in seeing us laugh. He delights in giving us good things. Our God delights in us - you, me, all of His special children.

Starting the day off with the thought that God delights in me is not common to my nature. The carnal desires see God as the master of the 'thou-shalt-not's'. The Law instills in me a desire to rebel against the very things that God says are good for me. However, there is grace, and is not my definition of grace just a little short of the reality? Grace is more than forgiveness, more than a cleansing growth within me pushing out the old carnal man. Grace is God delighting in His new child, giving the child things that both can enjoy together. These things may not be 'stuff' but a time of sharing together. The things may also include material stuff to enjoy with others of God's children. Don't limit God's grace with my shameful restrictions of self-pitying dread! Wow, where did that come from?

Sometimes, I have noticed a desire to wallow in suffering. Oh, God must love me, look at how much I have suffered. God does test our faith through the trial of suffering at times, but it is not His desire to see us suffer forever. How do I know that? Jesus would not have gone to prepare a place for me if eternal suffering was my destiny. Jesus is not preparing my place in Heaven as a memorial of what might have been if I didn't like suffering so much. No! It is time to rejoice in Christ and live as God would have me live.

Praise God for His delighting in me!
Bucky