Delightful Deliverance

Life and Scripture entwine themselves in my life all the time. It is amazing how true it is that the Word of God is "living and active." It is so true that it is useful in our lives in teaching and in correcting and in training. The Scriptures of God are alive because God is alive and His Spirit uses them to speak into our lives. It is amazing how God shows us great truths in the midst of normal moments in life.

This week I had the privilege of meeting with someone who, honestly, has no understanding of God's grace. They have come out of a religious background that is built upon works. They have been taught that they must do certain things and that only through those actions does a person receive the grace of God in their life. As we met and talked it was wonderful to have the privilege of sharing with this person the truth of God's grace. The basis of our conversation was Ephesians 2:8-10. They were completely blown away by the concept of grace as a gift – yet that is exactly what grace is – grace is a gift. If grace were not a gift it would not be grace.

So this week the truths of grace have really been on my mind and spirit. Then I read something out of the Vine for this week that really jumped out at me. In is in 2 Samuel 22 (verse 20b) "He rescued me, because he has delighted in me." The verse really hit me as I realized this is one of the hardest truths for us, as imperfect people, to grasp about God. Salvation (which literally means to rescue from perishing) is a delightful thing to God. He does it because it delights him.

Why does salvation delight God? Because we delight God.

That is right, God delights in you. Your salvation is not the result of you being delightful. It is the result of his delighting. There is a difference. The truth is that "God demonstrated his love for us, in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us." In the midst of your very worst moment – your most undelightful actions and thoughts – God showed you his love. At your very worst God delights in you, not because of you, but because of himself.

Our salvation is delightful to God because he delights in us. Our life response should be to be a delight to him. We should strive to be delightful because he is delighted in us – not so that he will be delighted in us. That is why Jesus said, "if you love me you will obey my commands." Obedience is not so we can love him and he us. It is because we love him because he already loved us. ("We love God because he first loved us."

So that is the truth rolling around in my head this week. I love to have such truths to meditate on. I love thinking about that over and over again. God has rescued me because he delighted in me. Not so that he could delight in me. Not because I had made myself delightful to him. Simply because he delighted in me.

I pray that God will show you his delight this week. And if you have never allowed his delight to bring you to a place of repentance and confession in Christ, I pray that this week you will find your delight in him, too.

He loves you more than you will ever realize. So experience the delightful deliverance of a Delighted Deliverer. And once you experience it, choose to delight in it by delighting Him.