God Delights in You
Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
“For the LORD your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
Too often in evangelical Christianity the focus in on how we are sinners (which we are), however after we come to Christ Jesus and trust in his death and resurrection on our behalf we are forgiven, we are restored in relationship with God, we have new life in him. This doesn’t mean we are perfect, or that we have a license to sin, we need to live holy as God is holy, but we are also covered by grace. Often the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) message conveyed is that God continues to be unhappy with us waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us or straighten us out. When in fact we are His people covered by grace. Christians continue to carry unnecessary guilt around, beating themselves up for every little thing, trying to do everything to make sure God is happy with us, when in fact He already takes delight in you. Have you considered how God is taking delight in you right now? Just being who you are, and living out your everyday life brings delight to God, like a parent who enjoys watching their infant child giggle, coo, and just be themselves. God is watching over us, taking delight in everything we do (other than sin of course). Sure, sometimes we are cranky, cry, and pout demanding our way, and like a parent, God is patient and helps us in our weakness.
I wonder how often Christians think the only thing that pleases God is if we are praying, or reading the Bible, or serving him in a church or community ministry, or witnessing to someone about our faith, but God takes delight in everything we do, as we work, as we play, as we do the ordinary, mundane things at our home and in our family. We do these other things, not to make God happy with us, because he already is delighted with us. We do these because he loves us, and we express our love to him by growing closer to him (prayer, Scripture), and doing whatever he asks us to do for him (such as serving in ministry capacities). Will you accept today that God is taking delight in you wherever you may be, whatever mundane task you may be doing?