Delighting in God: Newspaper Article for Hot Springs Star

Delighting in God

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. (Westminster Shorter Catechism)

“Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4)

Life is not always easy. However, God is always good. I was reminded of that again last night.

I was awakened about an hour after I went to sleep by my beautiful daughter Karis, who was crying for a reason I have still yet to figure out. I kept trying to do the right thing for her that would help her get back to sleep. Nothing seemed to work. Then I asked her if she wanted me to hold her and rock her. She said yes. She stood up, and raised her hands for me to grab her.

I held her in my arms and rocked her. I held her close. I sang songs softly in her ear. After about five minutes I started to get up to put her back in the crib. Her hand came up to my cheek. “No daddy, not yet.” She said to me as she snuggled in tighter.

The same thing happened 3 more times in the next 15 minutes. Then I prayed with her, kissed her, and put her down to sleep. She slept soundly the rest of the night, and late into the next morning.

It is a moment she will soon forget, but I will never forget. I got to hold her, sing songs of comfort to her, and let her know I loved her. I live for those moments. What brought me the most joy was that I was bringing her joy. She loved being rocked, being held, and being sung to. And the fact that she loved it made it all that more enjoyable for me.

I think this is much the way God experiences prayer and worship. He enjoys having us delight in him. He loves it when we cry out to him, and he gets to hold us close, and wipe our tears away.

In fact, it may be some of those moments where we are so lost and confused that we have to turn to him to be our everything that he delights in the most. Oh, I believe that God hates to see us hurt.  But I know he loves to forgive, comfort, restore, and heal. This is clear throughout Scripture.

As we linger in those moments of worship and prayer and experience His presence, we may feel the tug to get back to the real world. But then something in deep in our hearts tells us to stay a little while longer. We say to the world, “No, not yet”. God smiles and pulls us closer. And we are slowly renewed.