He Delights in You

“He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”  Zephaniah 3:17

            Have you ever felt that someone delighted in you? Has there ever been anyone who was thrilled to just be in your presence? Who smiled when you entered the room? The truth is that we have all been delighted in. We may or may not have experienced that from another human, but God delights in each one of us. He delights in you. In fact, this says He takes great delight in you. He’s pleased with you. He wants to hang out with you. You bring Him joy.

            I just love the middle part of this verse. When’s the last time you’ve been anxious about something? Maybe your thoughts were running around the race track in your mind. Lots of mental activity that doesn’t get you anywhere. Or perhaps you’ve experienced a grief that seemed to have you in a pit so deep you would never again see the light of day. Your body felt as if it would break from the strength of your sobbing. Maybe you started believing the lies about how the situation you’re facing is too overwhelming and there’s no hope, no way out. So your mind runs even faster and you sob even harder. That’s when God steps in with His indescribable love and gently shushes you. He rubs your back or gently rocks you until the tears have stopped and the mind slows. The word translated as “quiet” means altogether silent. Instead of racing thoughts and emotions, we can experience complete peace. Peace beyond comprehension. All because of His great love for us.

            The verse then seems to almost double back to the first part of the sentence. Because He delights in you, he rejoices over you. This is a song of joy, of great celebration. It’s almost as if He is so excited about you that He just has to let out a loud shout. That’s hard to comprehend, isn’t it? But it’s what scripture tells us. So the next time you think you’re a failure, or even a disappointment, read God’s word and revel in the fact that the King of the universe finds great delight and joy in none other than you!

Let His Light Shine

“All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing.” Colossians 1:6

            What movements seem to be growing in our world today? Do you sometimes get discouraged when you see certain ideas growing? It seems as if evil and danger expand daily. We hear more and more of people resorting to gun violence to “resolve” disputes or to release anger. Mass shootings almost seem to have become a regular occurrence. Or maybe you think of the rise in broken families and homes torn apart by those seeking their own selfish desires. Or perhaps those homes were torn apart long before it became public because of abuse that was endured. Incidents of depression leading to suicide, especially in the young, are more and more common.

            Worst of all, the number of people who no longer believe in God, those who no longer follow Him or His word seem to be growing in number daily. I believe that this should be listed as the first example of evil encroaching in our culture. The others – the violence, the anger, the depression, the disillusionment – are growing because faith in God is shrinking.

            Or is it shrinking? According to this passage, the gospel is growing. How do we reconcile this verse with what we seem to be seeing in our world today? First, we need to pay attention to the first four words, all over the world. It is true that evil seems to have gained a real foothold in our culture today but is that true across the whole earth? Or are there places where the gospel is growing, and growing at such a rate to even outpace the growth of evil in our own culture? Is it possible that others are seeing the fruit this verse speaks of even as we see the fruit of faithlessness here?

            Does this mean we should give up on our culture in discouragement or frustration? Not at all! Think about where the gospel is growing. Of course, God can grow His word anywhere but it seems that quite often, the gospel grows in the midst of evil culture and even persecution of Christians. Every time a person chooses to not follow God or every time evil is perpetrated, we know that our enemy rejoices. But that’s because he tends to have a very short viewpoint. He looks at the “now.” But our God looks at the eternal. I’m not saying that God wants bad things to happen. I believe each time we choose to disobey God and follow satan, even for a minute, God is grieved. But that doesn’t mean He can’t use and work through it.

            What, then, should our response be to the evil that is growing in our culture? First, the most important thing we can and should do is cling tightly to God. I picture us as being in a raging river, fighting against the current, hanging onto a tree branch for our very life. That’s how we should be clinging to God in the midst of the raging culture in which we find ourselves. Secondly, we continue to share the hope we have in Christ with those around us. We may be ridiculed or even threatened for our beliefs. Still, we can’t help but share the love of Christ with others. But most of all, we continue to grow in Him. The fruit of the Spirit continues to thrive in our lives, spilling over onto everyone we meet. When we’re living in the love of Christ, we can’t help but spread the gospel, bearing fruit for Him. We can have hope from knowing that the darker our culture becomes, the brighter His light will shine.