Knowing You're Enjoyed

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation. (Psalm 149:4, MKJV)

My birthday girl twirled round and round, a big smile on her princess face. She knew this day was all about her, and that she was loved. That glow on her little face said she liked the attention and the affection that came with it.

When I study the love of God lately, I feel enjoyed. Joy rises in my heart because I know I’m loved. And more than that, I begin to believe (at a deeper level) that I am enjoyed.

God delights in you. Do you believe it? How does believing that truth affect the way you live?

When you know you’re enjoyed by God, you . . .

~ stop vying for His attention
~ doubting His true affection for you
~ stop trying to earn his unmerited favor
~ get free from rejection issues

If you’d like to see how God enjoys you, pray. Ask Him to reveal afresh to you that He enjoys you. Then, read His Word and wait on him to reveal His goodness to you. He wants you to see and understand His heart.

And if knowing God enjoys you is a familiar truth to you, why not ask God for more? There's always more of Him to experience.

Tell Him You Love Him

[Jesus] then asked a second time,
"Simon, son of John, do you love me?" (John 21:16)

If you will, this verse reads like an invitation for us to tell Him we love Him. That’s how it struck me this week anyway. Like any two people in relationship, one could ask “Do you love me?”

I think this speaks to Jesus’ passionate heart for His people as individuals. God can keep it all straight, all at once. He can have an intensely personal relationship with every single person on the planet at the same time without overload. He is God. And like the consummate Lover, He wants to hear us tell Him we love Him.

When was the last time you told Him you love Him? Not only for what He’s done, though that’s certainly where it starts. But for who He is.

Here Him whisper the question to you. What’s your answer?

Through the Lens of Love

Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we'll skip and dance all the day long.

(from Psalm 90:12, MSG)

Isn’t that beautiful? I spotted that verse after my daily reading the other morning and immediately felt that God was speaking to me of His love. He likes to comfort us and minister to us.

In a recent DVD teaching series, we heard about God’s Word (the Bible) being God’s love letter to us. Do you read His Word as if it’s His love letter?

I once heard a teacher say he used a highlighter in his Bible to underline any passage that expressed God’s love. He went on a specific search for verses having to do with God’s love and read the Scriptures through that lens of love. Whenever he’d find a verse which demonstrated God’s love, he’d highlight it in yellow. He said Ephesians in his Bible was pretty much spray painted in yellow and just when he thinks he’s underlined everything, another verse would surprise him with God’s love at its core.

Why not read the Scriptures as if they were written as a love letter to you?

This may be a new perspective for you. If so, seeing the Scriptures this way may not come easily. There’s a secret to it. Here’s what you do: ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and tenderize your heart as you read. Don’t read too quickly, you might miss something.

Give it a try.