How do we delight in the Lord? - Part 4
by Kelly Dixon
by Kelly Dixon
Reading: 2 Chronicles 7:14; Romans 8:1-11
There is a point in our Christian walk when we begin to realize that we are frustrated with our own inabilities to be faithfully obedient. So far in this devotional series on “How do we delight in the Lord”, we have talked about developing a desire to please God; slowing down and recognizing the people God has placed in our lives; and being faithful even when those people seem to be causing division. Even in the midst of these lessons we have an issue that the Lord must address in our own hearts. This issue is one of learning how to draw from the strength of God to accomplish what is being asked of us as Christians.
For me this process began with a breaking down of my pride that was standing so much in the way of the Lord using me it was hindering who I really was in Him. Before the Ladies for Jesus ministry began the Lord started this process and looking back now I can see how He has used it for His glory. He began by giving me an uneasy feeling about the plans I had placed on my life and gently from there He began to reveal layer by layer how I was trying to be faithfully obedient without drawing from His strength. What was so ironic about it all was that my favorite verse in the Bible was and still is, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) This verse was one I even placed on my stationery when I began my own business in 1993. I had it scrolling on my computer's screensaver so I would see it when I was on the phone with someone. It was placed on my desk and I would look at it many times. However, when the Lord started to reveal to me how inadequate I was in fulfilling His purpose in my life, I began to see that I had no clue how to apply that Scripture to my life.
In our efforts to obtain how to delight in the Lord, we must begin to realize we need to submit ourselves to Him so He can remove the things in our lives that are hindering us from fulfilling our purpose in Him. We are so eager to please Him we jump quickly into service mode and we don’t realize as we do that we have begun to serve God in our own way and not the way He would like for us to serve Him. From personal experience, I can tell you these efforts will always result in feelings of guilt because you begin to feel that you cannot live up to being the person God wants you to be. However, in reality, the truth lies in the fact that we are trying to live up to the image of who we think God wants us to be. God never intended for us to have these feelings of guilt when we serve Him. It has always been His intent to live the Christian life through us. When we submit to Him and allow Him to do this, then we will not have feelings of guilt that erupt but instead feelings of pure joy and delight.
It is to our detriment, however, if we ignore the fact that this process is one of pure humiliation. When we submit ourselves to the Lord in this manner, we must realize that the absolute raw truths about our human frailties will come to the surface. In so doing, we will experience humiliation that brings forth the darkness of our lives, but God will ultimately use it for our own good.
Oswald Chambers wrote:
After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, "How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!" And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.
Dear one, please do not shy away from this process of your Christian walk. Allow God to reveal His truths about your life to you. Submit yourselves to Him so that He can soften your heart through humiliation. Realize that through our flesh we cannot obtain the things of heaven (Romans 8:5). We must present ourselves before the throne of God and allow Him to peel away the layers that are keeping us from being our all in Him. For if we don’t do so, then we will not experience pure delight.
Prayer: Lord, I love You. Lord, I’m hesitant to come to You in this manner. Let Your Spirit guide me to this growth in You. Give me a humble heart that will lead to pure delight in You. Amen.
