Delighting in God

Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Surveys consistently show that the vast majority of Americans believe in God. In some surveys, nine out of ten Americans profess such belief. But how many of those who say they believe in God can also say they delight in God? Not many, I suspect.

For the average nominal believer, God is mostly irrelevant, except in times of crisis or great need. And even among those who devoutly believe, delight in God is all too rare. For many, God is more a cause of anxious concern than delight, as they struggle with unresolved guilt and premonitions of judgment.

What does it mean, then, to delight in God? Delighting in God means enjoying God’s presence. It means that duties such as prayer, reading the Word, and worship are not really duties at all, but pleasures. It means that doing the will of God is not burdensome but food and drink for the soul.

Best of all, when we delight in God, God delights in us and is pleased grant us the desires of our heart.

Such delight is itself a gift from God, the sweet fruit of his Spirit at work within us. By his grace may we move beyond mere belief to holy delight in the Lord.

Beyond mere belief to holy delight!

Wisdom from Corrie Ten Boom

"Look around, you'll be distressed. Look within, you'll be depressed.   Look to the Lord, you'll be at rest."

Getting in Touch With God

And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I can touch His garment, I shall be made well.  Matthew 9:20-21

Wonderful things can happen when we get in touch with God. The woman in the gospel story is a case in point.

After twelve years of suffering -- both from her affliction and at the hands of many doctors -- she was inspired with an idea: If only I can touch His garment, I shall be made well. For her, words were unnecessary. What mattered was establishing a point of contact with God – reaching out and touching Jesus. 

It wasn't so much the physical touch; it was her faith that touched Jesus. As a result,  his healing power flowed into her body and made her whole. Such is the power of faith.

Are you troubled by guilt? Reach out by faith and receive his forgiveness. Are you weighed down with cares and commitments? Reach out by faith and receive his strength. Are you afflicted by fear? Reach out by faith and receive his peace.

Whatever your need, Christ is the answer and faith is the power of staying in touch.

Wonderful things happen when we get in touch with God.

"Oh, that today my clothes may be vestments, my meals sacraments, my house a temple, my table an altar, my speech incense, and myself a priest! Lord, fulfill Thy promise, and let nothing be to me common or unclean."

You Are the Body of Christ

Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.

1 Cor. 12:27

How often we speak of the Church as the body of Christ, but how seldom do we realize the full spiritual meaning of those words. No one understood them better than Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). 

Born in Spain, Teresa entered a Carmelite convent when she was eighteen. She would become one of the Church’s great mystics and spiritual writers. Her poem, Christ Has No Body, beautifully expresses the meaning of our sacred calling to be members of his body:

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.                                    

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Easter: Past, Present, and Future

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Colossians 3:1-3

To fully appreciate the meaning of Easter we need to understand it in terms of past, present, and future.

Easter Past. This is the historical dimension of Easter. Christ rose bodily from the dead in space and time on that first Easter Sunday more than 2,000 years ago. The tomb was empty and he appeared to various of his followers on numerous occasions.

Easter Future. This is the great Christian hope: the day will come when all who have died will hear the voice of the Son of God and rise from their graves (John 5:28). O Death, where is thy sting? 

But Easter is far more than a past event and a future hope. We must also consider:

Easter Present. Every Christian who has been born of the Spirit has experienced a spiritual resurrection from death to new life in Christ. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us (Rom 8:11) and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). That’s why Paul says that, if we have been raised with Christ let us set our minds on the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.

No one has expressed the joy of Easter Present better than George Herbert in his poem, Easter: Rise heart, thy Lord is risen! As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and our future hope, let us lift up hearts to heaven in joyful celebration. We are alive and well in Christ today!