Delight

When you hear the word "delight", what comes to mind for you? Per Webster, the verb meaning is, "To pleasure greatly" and the noun is, "Great pleasure". 

I asked Mark about this yesterday and he mentioned the feeling he gets when he catches fish equalling "delight". I can attest.

I also take great delight in acting silly and surprising people with uncharacteristic antics. I'm usually serious and focussed, especially at work, so when I break out every once in awhile and show up to an event in a weird outfit, sneak outside of someone's office and blow bubbles or talk in a funny voice and people are genuinely surprised and affirming that I can indeed loosen up, I take delight in that.

Of course "this guy" is a never ending source of delight...silliness, making up song lyrics, talking in our own language, and culinary surprises, I know I chose wisely to spend the rest of my life with him.

And, of course, this one...

After a previously reported dry spell of inspiration during my morning devotions in December, it seemed like God flipped a switch (or perhaps my heart/spirit were open more to receiving) and January 1st began a decent mining of concepts, lessons, and treasure to discover, not only in the Word, but in daily readings and an old favorite of mine, "Be Still and Know" by Millie Stamm (so old the pages are falling out--I reread it every few years and it never gets old).

One of the devotionals from this past week featured the well known verse Psalm 37:4-"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". Yeahyeahyeah...read that before...And I know that it isn't a "magic formula", like, "If I delight and take pleasure in God, He'll give me whatever I want". Still, I wasn't 100% sure I'd ever dug a bit deeper into the verse so I got my tools (Strong's concordance, Bible Hub commentaries) and went mining, eager to see if there was anything more to be discovered.

What I found was quite jaw dropping and humbling. The word "delight" used here in Hebrew means, "To be soft or pliable". I even double checked myself to make sure I had the correct reference. "Pliable" per Webster="easily bent" or "flexible". WOW!? I sat and pondered this for a while because all I'd known previously about the word "delight" was "pleasure" and that is so NOT what was intended in this verse.

So I thought on this...I wrote in my spiritual journal my own interpretation of what the verse was really trying to convey: "Be flexible in the Lord", "Bend to HIS will/HIS way/HIS desires"...changes the whole meaning (=nothing about taking pleasure in) but it still comes with a promise: "...and He will give you the desires of your heart". The devotional accompanying this said, "As we spend time with God we will delight in Him. His desires become our desires because our hearts are tuned to His. He will grant us what we desire because we both want the same thing". 

I LOVE this. I love that a verse I've read countless times over and over takes on a whole new (and correct!) meaning just from taking the time to dig a bit deeper and explore. Granted, being "flexible" is a considerable challenge for me in ANY area of life...but reading this and being made aware of the true meaning of this issued a challenge nonetheless. Don't I want the desires of my heart to be in accordance of what God wants? Don't I want to be "soft" and "pliable" to HIS will/way/plan so that my desires are in fact HIS desires? ("Yes", I say in my mouth...my spirit still needs to catch up at times). A great way to start the New Year...may it challenge your heart, soul, and spirit also.