Let Delight Fill Your Heart

Key Scripture – “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

“Key Thought  – “Jesus’ delight in us is now our delight in him. “

In recognising what God has done for us we must accept that other people are more likely to pursue God out of a sense of approval rather than a delight in him. Therefore, the great challenge is help people discover the infinite desire of God’s love and live from the heart of delight God has birthed in us. David, famously declared this in Psalms: –

“Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

God designed and created you for beauty. He redeemed you for beauty.  You were the delight of his heart, the raging fire of his desire and the eternal joy that ravished his plans. He designed the universe for your benefit, so you could marvel at his vastness, desire his goodness, be captivated by his kindness and bask in his beauty.

Jesus Christ was the glory of God revealed to mankind. He was the delight of God’s desire. Everything that was in God was found in Christ and Christ is the first born of every believer. We have been united into the fullness of Christ; his life is now the life that is alive in our veins.

And just as Jesus was the delight of God, we are now the delight of the Father. You now are covered in beauty eternal, cemented in love, clothed in the glory of God, intertwined with him in union down in the innermost depths of your heart; you exist in love, for love has made its kingdom in your heart.

For the servant came to free us from the lies of the enemy that enslaved, confused and trapped mankind. The lies that took away our value, degraded our beauty and trapped us into a prison of shame. He came to demonstrate the goodness of God, to act in the mercy of God and to touch us with the compassion of God.

The promise of God’s delight is the overflowing grace of God demonstrated to us, that while we were lost he entered our world and revealed the love of God to us in Jesus.

I am going to revisit the story in the Bible of Jesus visiting the home of a man he had raised from the dead and spend a few moments viewing it from a different perspective.

“Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”  Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself. Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” – John 12:1-8 (NLT)
Here Mary in an act of selflessness took her most treasured and expensive perfume and poured it over the feet of Jesus.  And then with her hair wiped his feet clean.  The aroma of the perfume filled the house with a fragrance of gratitude and love.

One of the men in the room immediately objected to this extravagant display and speaking his mind he forcefully let everyone know of his displeasure with the act.  But knowing the motives of his heart, Jesus instructed that the infinite worth of love is far more precious that the measurable value of earthly possessions.

For God is boundless in his love to us.  Mary although she probably did not know it, demonstrated in this selfless act the true heart of God. A God that stoops down and loves his creation. An act of unlimited wealth as she poured out her most treasured possession. An act of self-sacrifice that transcended logic, convention, dignity and worldly values.

For God desires us to break free of the patterns of the world and embrace his abundant life.

This simple act of devotion had eternal consequences for bound in the broken alabaster flask was the sweet aroma of heaven and in the same way Noah offered up his sacrifice of thanking for his deliverance from the ark, Jesus offered himself up at the cross to be our pleasing sacrifice to God.

Paul captured the essence of this life of thanksgiving when he wrote to the Ephesians :-

“Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” – Ephesians 5:2
Jesus was the fragrance offered to God, the sweet perfume of heaven, the infinite delight of God’s heart. His sacrifice was the final sacrifice, with his one act at the cross all sacrifices were wrapped up in his death. His offering was the perfect fragrance that satisfied and pleased for all time the desire of the Father.

And with the Father’s satisfaction comes the Father’s delight. Because God is satisfied with Christ, He is delighted with his finished work and we are now united in Christ in the delight of the father. God is eternally pleased with us because he is eternally pleased with Christ. The overflow of our heart is the delight God has in his son.

When God looks at Christ he sees him as perfect, holy, righteous, glorious, magnificent, conquering, and victorious, and that is exactly how God views you in Christ.

The fragrance of your heart is the presence of Christ and his delight in you is the aroma that captivates your soul.  It is the delight of God that embraces our senses and enraptures the father with our lives; –

“Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.  This fragrance is perceived by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15
For Jesus’ delight in us is now our delight in him.

The more we dive in to the delight of God we realise our delight in loving him. For the essence of our relationship with God is a heart of delight in his goodness and grace. To live each moment with a heart bursting with love and a tangible affection that is satisfied with his love. The sacrifice of Christ is the satisfaction of our hearts, it accomplished all the purposes of the Father, it fulfilled all God’s plans and it restored our hearts into the intimacy that we had always wanted.

Delighting in God is the root that reaches into the desire of God and draws from the streams of God’s righteousness. Our heart’s hunger to experience the intimate love of our Father. We long to be connected into an oasis of righteousness.

And what does this hunger and thirst for righteousness look like? It means a vibrant, unhindered, perfect fellowship and union with God. A heart that is no longer guilty, condemned, feeling shameful or tormented with doubt, but is secure in God’s love, is peaceful and is in harmony with the presence of God.

For when delight fills our hearts we realise our perfect union with him and God’s presence seeps through our emotions