Delighting in the Lord

My sisters and I just got back from an encouraging weekend at a ladies’ retreat hosted by some dear friends of ours. It was such a blessing to get to spend a few days at a beautiful lakeside cabin, fellowshipping with other sisters in Christ, singing together, having lighthearted + deep conversations over meals, walks & late night campfires, and encouraging each other in the Lord. 💗 The theme of the retreat was “Delighting in the Lord”, and there were so many good things shared about how we can delight in the Lord. I wanted to share some thoughts and verses that I had found on that topic and had shared during a breakout session.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to share when I first started looking up Bible verses about delighting in the Lord, but then I got really excited as the Lord led me to some different passages where I noticed three things that result from us delighting in the Lord…

1. Obedience

Jesus said in John 14:15 – “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” It is because we love God and are thankful for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross to die for our sins that we take great delight in obeying Him. “We love Him because He first loved us.” And “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 4:19, 5:2-3)

Some other verses that talk about delighting in obeying God are:

“And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah.” (2 Chronicles 17:6)

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22)

“I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8)

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

“For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man.” (Romans 7:22)

---

2. Joy

The theme verse of the weekend, I would say, was Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” The meaning of the Hebrew word here for “delight” is:

to be glad; to be happy about; take exquisite delight.

I love that last phrase – take exquisite delight. We aren’t just to have delight in the Lord, but we are to have exquisite, (beautiful and intense) delight! Here are some other verses I found that talked about having delight and joy in the Lord:

“Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; for then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.” (Job 22:25-26)

“But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You, let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them.” (Psalm 5:11)

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

“You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11)

---

3. Satisfaction

Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines “delight” as:

a high degree of pleasure, or satisfaction of mind; joy

Another line in the definition really made me stop and think! It said…

Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.

When we delight in the Lord, He gives us a permanent, deep satisfaction, contentment, and joy. No other person can bring us that kind of satisfaction. God is the only one who can truly satisfy our deepest longings.

“For He satisfies the longing soul.” (Psalm 107:9)

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26)

As I was finishing up my study on delighting in the Lord, I couldn’t help but notice all of the verses that talk about how the Lord delights in us!

“You shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you.” (Isaiah 62:4)

“The LORD your God is in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

“He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19)

What an awesome thought, that the God of the universe would delight and rejoice in US! We who have scorned and rejected and gone away from Him. Yet He is a compassionate, forgiving, and loving Heavenly Father.

---

What are some practical ways that we can “delight in the Lord”? Some things that were shared during the retreat were: singing to the Lord, talking to Him in prayer, reveling in His creation, reading, meditating on, and memorizing His Word. I was talking to one of my sisters about the practicals of delighting in the Lord, and how you only get out of a relationship as much as you put into it. That made me think of a George Mueller quote, which says:

“The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.” -George Mueller

My sister shared something similar that was discussed during one of the breakout sessions. It was the question: how can you delight in someone if you don’t know them? For any relationship to work, you have to invest in it. And that is what God desires for us to have with Him – a relationship. I pray that everyone who reads this does know the Lord Jesus Christ and has a relationship with Him!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Sincerely,