God’s Yes

Take delight in the LORD.

Psalm 37:4

When you take delight in the Lord, he becomes the desire of your heart. The word translated “delight” comes from a Hebrew word that means soft, moldable, or pliable. When you delight yourself in the Lord, you become pliable and moldable in his hands. He is able to fashion a heart like his. He is able to create desires that match his will. In fact, Paul writes, “God is working in you, giving you the desire . . . to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

I love the word delight. It is a joyful word. It speaks of an emotion beyond mere happiness. When something delights you, it allures you, draws you, beckons you. The more you delight yourself in God, the more he is able to make deposits from his heart to yours. The more access he has to you, the more you find your heart refashioned by his hand. Your heart’s deepest yearnings become echoes of his.

But delighting in the Lord takes time. It calls for determined devotion—choosing him above all else. Many distractions try to lure you away from the one for whom your heart is designed—Jesus. Tasks and people and causes compete for the position that belongs to him alone.

Take delight in the Lord. Not just in what you hope he will accomplish for you, but in what he will accomplish in you. He—not just his gifts but his person, his presence—is the real allure.

Give me wisdom to sort the precious from the worthless. Give me the knowledge of you that causes me to cling to you and to desire you above all else. So fashion my heart that it reflects yours more each day. Here I am. Mold me into your likeness. You are the desire of my heart.

Faith does not grasp a doctrine, but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is the bond that unites souls with Him; and the very life of it is entire committal of myself to Him in all my relations and for all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as all sufficient for everything that I can require.

Alexander Maclaren(1826–1910), British preacher and Bible expositor