Have you taken the time recently to think about how God delights in you?
He delights in YOU period.
There is no comma, conditioning clause or a but followed by exceptions.
He simply loves and delights in you as his child.
The Lord your God …will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
God gave me a beautiful picture of this the other day when I was spending time with my nephew. Have you ever held a sleeping baby before? (if not I'd highly
recommend it because you're missing out on one of the most precious, peaceful moments in life)
But anyways, as I sat on the couch holding my baby nephew in my arms. I simply looked down at his sleeping little body and my heart overflowed with joy and love for him. I watched his chest rise and fall to the rhythm of his breathing, the details of his little eyelashes and the warmth of this body against mine and simply soaked it all in. I was delighting in him, and my sweet little nephew did not have to even do a thing for my heart to be filled with joy. He wasn't smiling at me, holding my fingers, making adorable baby noises, or showing me his new tricks of clapping his hands, waving and standing up. No he was just there simply being and that's all he needed to do in order for my heart to overflow with love for him.
I wonder if that's a picture of how God views us. He doesn't need us to spend an hour reading the Bible every day, or to perfectly share the gospel with others, be involved in 5 different ministries at our church, and go on missions trips every summer. While none of those things are bad, God doesn't need us to do any of those things. He delights in us and loves us because of who we are and not because of what we do. He delights in us simply because we are his children just like I delighted in my nephew simply because he is my baby nephew.
God loves you simply because you are his.
Now, when my nephew gets excited to see me, gives me a hug or does something cute, it brings me joy, because I see that he is responding to the love that I have for him and he shows me that our relationship isn't just one sided. So yes it does bring God pleasure when we walk with him and follow his ways, because we are showing him that his deep, unconditional love for us has affected our hearts that we have received the love and value that he has placed in us and we want to respond to that love.
BUT even when we don't and even when we mess up and we aren't perfect, God's love for us never changes. We are still his children who he delights.
Rest in that today, sweet friend. Bask in the knowledge that you can rest that you can stop striving to earn God's favor, performing and seeking to be perfect, because God has already poured out his favor on us and given us the highest value he has called us his beloved Children, and that is an unshakable identity.
You know the best part about our identity as children of God? There is nothing we can do to earn it (it is only through the cross and Jesus's payment for our sins) which also means that there is nothing we can do to lose it. This is the one identity that is not dependent on ourselves, but is instead dependent on God's amazing and unchanging grace and love for us.
So let go of the burden of performance and run in the freedom of grace.
You are a beloved child of God, and no one can change that!
He delights in YOU period.
There is no comma, conditioning clause or a but followed by exceptions.
He simply loves and delights in you as his child.
The Lord your God …will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
God gave me a beautiful picture of this the other day when I was spending time with my nephew. Have you ever held a sleeping baby before? (if not I'd highly
recommend it because you're missing out on one of the most precious, peaceful moments in life)
But anyways, as I sat on the couch holding my baby nephew in my arms. I simply looked down at his sleeping little body and my heart overflowed with joy and love for him. I watched his chest rise and fall to the rhythm of his breathing, the details of his little eyelashes and the warmth of this body against mine and simply soaked it all in. I was delighting in him, and my sweet little nephew did not have to even do a thing for my heart to be filled with joy. He wasn't smiling at me, holding my fingers, making adorable baby noises, or showing me his new tricks of clapping his hands, waving and standing up. No he was just there simply being and that's all he needed to do in order for my heart to overflow with love for him.
I wonder if that's a picture of how God views us. He doesn't need us to spend an hour reading the Bible every day, or to perfectly share the gospel with others, be involved in 5 different ministries at our church, and go on missions trips every summer. While none of those things are bad, God doesn't need us to do any of those things. He delights in us and loves us because of who we are and not because of what we do. He delights in us simply because we are his children just like I delighted in my nephew simply because he is my baby nephew.
God loves you simply because you are his.
Now, when my nephew gets excited to see me, gives me a hug or does something cute, it brings me joy, because I see that he is responding to the love that I have for him and he shows me that our relationship isn't just one sided. So yes it does bring God pleasure when we walk with him and follow his ways, because we are showing him that his deep, unconditional love for us has affected our hearts that we have received the love and value that he has placed in us and we want to respond to that love.
BUT even when we don't and even when we mess up and we aren't perfect, God's love for us never changes. We are still his children who he delights.
Rest in that today, sweet friend. Bask in the knowledge that you can rest that you can stop striving to earn God's favor, performing and seeking to be perfect, because God has already poured out his favor on us and given us the highest value he has called us his beloved Children, and that is an unshakable identity.
You know the best part about our identity as children of God? There is nothing we can do to earn it (it is only through the cross and Jesus's payment for our sins) which also means that there is nothing we can do to lose it. This is the one identity that is not dependent on ourselves, but is instead dependent on God's amazing and unchanging grace and love for us.
So let go of the burden of performance and run in the freedom of grace.
You are a beloved child of God, and no one can change that!
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