“The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” Psalms 147:11
My finite mind often finds it hard to understand how God feels about me as an individual. When I think of the millions of people who live in the world today, and then try to wrap my mind around the fact that He cares for insignificant me. And yet, His Word tells me that He loves me and cares for me as if I were the only person in the universe. He even knows exactly how many hairs are on my head. As I get older, I realize He has less to count than when I was younger.
This verse in Psalms stood out to me in my Bible reading the other day. The word “fear” that is used here is not like being scared or frightened by something or someone. It means to be in awe or wonder of Hi Him.
The New Living Translation reads: “No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
So, the question is: What do we have to do to make sure that the Lord finds pleasure in us? According to this verse the first thing is to fear Him or stand in awe of Him. This entails spending time in His presence, reading His Word and then obeying what we find there. It means totally surrendering our will and way to Him, knowing that whatever He has planned for our life is far better than anything we could even dream of.
The second thing is to have hope in His mercy. He knows all our faults and our shortcomings and yet He loves us unconditionally. We know that when we fail or make mistakes, we can cast ourselves on His mercy, and rest in His forgiveness. He delights when we bring our every care and problem to Him.
“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:7.
When we have someone who loves us, we want to please them and make them happy. As we realize how much God loves us, our desire will be to please Him in all we do and give Him reason to rejoice and have pleasure in us.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the love and mercy you have extended to us and that you rejoice over us. Help us to walk worthy of your love, so that you will always have pleasure in us.
Devotion by Anne Johnston
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