He led me to a place of safety;
    he rescued me because he delights in me. (Psalm 18:19)

What am I supposed to think about God delighting in me?  Why would He delight in us?  At first I am tempted to simply ignore it as not really possible; after all God knows me even better than I know myself so why would a holy God ever delight in me?  The problem with that is it puts His delight in me totally on who I am and what I do. So I ask again, how could God ever delight in me?  And if I think that God delights in me because of who I am and what I do then I run the risk of delighting in myself instead of in God.

I did a little search to see what others had to say and found an article by John Piper quite helpful.  First, he points out what God is really delighting in:
“Therefore, when we say God rejoices in our thinking and feeling and doing what is right, we mean that he delights in our seeing, savoring, and showing his own supreme value. God values our valuing him. God delights in our delighting in him.”

And then he points to the risk of misunderstanding what God’s delight in us really means:
“The proper reason to be glad that God delights in our delight in him is because it confirms that our delight is truly in God. This fixes our gaze more steadfastly on him and deepens our joy in his beauty. But there is a devastating way to respond to God’s commendation of us. What if we hear God’s praise and are drawn away from delighting in God to delighting in God’s delighting in us? What if we hear his praise as a tickler of what we really enjoy, namely, being made much of? What if the bottom line of what makes us happy is not God himself, but God’s attention, God’s praise? If that is the bottom line, then we are not delighting in God, but only using delight in God to get commendations. That would be devastating. When God’s delight in us lures us to delight in being delighted in, we are ceasing to do the very thing God delights in”

I like Piper's thoughts because they confirm the conclusion I was beginning to reach.  But more than that, Piper’s thoughts line up with this Psalm of David, and with David’s life.  There is no doubt that David delighted in the Lord. That he treasured God, trusted God, obeyed God.  And in so doing God delighted in him.  We read in Acts 13:22 that David was a man after God’s own heart.  But we know David was far from perfect; so what made him a man after God’s own heart?  That answer is also found in the very same verse in Acts, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’” God found in David a man who would be obedient to all that God wanted him to do because He was a man who had put his faith in God.  God delighted in that.  That idea makes a whole lot more sense to me, God delights in me because I delight in Him, I treasure Him, trust Him and obey Him.  I do not do it perfectly, far from it-but God knows my heart and that the overwhelming desire of my life is to live in such a way as to honor Him.  To live trusting Him even when the road is tough.  To praise Him even in the storms.  To wait for Him to answer the cries of my heart believing all that He says about Himself.  So as I consider this truth--that God delights in me--I am led to further delight myself in the Lord and His great mercies.  Oh, Lord, keep me from thinking more highly of myself than I ought!

 May grace, peace, and mercy abound, 

(John Piper’s article can be found here: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-god-tells-us-he-delights-in-his-children)

“I love You, O Lord, my strength.”
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1-3)

Today’s Psalm was written by David after God delivered him from all of his enemies, including King Saul.  The Psalms are where I have always turned when my heart is troubled.  David seems to capture in much better words than I ever could the struggle to live in troubled times while trusting in the Lord.  Several of the Psalms were written while he was on the run from King Saul.  David had been anointed to replace Saul as the king of Israel, but he would not raise his hand against Saul, he waited and waited for God to remove Saul.  Even when David was given the perfect opportunities to kill Saul he refused to do it.  He was a most unusual man in this regard.

I am still trying to learn the lessons of letting God be in control.  There are things that I would love to fix, and fix right now.  That is not always the way of God.  And so, like David, I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.  I take refuge in His presence and rely on Him for the strength to face each day.  To trust Him to rescue me from whatever evil assails me.  And yet, I keep trying to take back “control”-even as I acknowledge my own weakness to do anything about certain circumstances.  I am pretty sure that at times I have not followed David’s wisdom in letting God deal with things instead of taking things into my own hands and forcing an action whose time had not yet come.  In so doing even greater heartache has often occurred.  It is so easy to say, “let go and let God,” it is quite another thing to live it.  His ways are not our ways-anyone who has encountered Jesus knows that. Jesus Himself has told us, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, NLT)  It is a daily process.  It is a daily choice I must make to give up my way, my self, and follow Jesus.

May grace, peace, and mercy abound, 

He (Jesus) told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow.  But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.  Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” (Matthew 13:3-9)

I have heard this parable many, many times since I was a young girl.  Sometimes I am tempted to not give much thought to it, it’s just so familiar, but this morning it just feels like I need to consider these words of Jesus once again.  I love to garden.  I know all about the importance of planting my seed in good soil.  I know all about weeds and the problems they cause.  Still, I never want to skim over anything that Jesus has to say.
One of the really cool things about this parable is that Jesus takes time to tell us exactly what it means.  That is where I want to sit myself down at His feet this morning.

When the disciples asked Jesus why He taught in parables this was His answer, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables,
For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. (Matthew 13:11-13)

These words are resonating with me this morning: to those who have been granted understanding...those who actually listen will gain even more understanding, and,an abundance of knowledge. These words are leading me to ponder once again this very familiar parable.

So, when Jesus states to the disciples, “Now listen to the explanation” I decided to stop and listen.  We are living in some pretty interesting times so making sure I am cultivating good soil remains vitally important.
As I examine my garden that is now lying dormant in the winter, I have a footpath.  I don’t plant seeds there.  The soil is hard from being walked on over and over again, it is compacted and not nurtured to allow for growing things.  In fact I will often put barriers on this path to keep things from growing.  Any seed that spills here would probably be snatched up by the birds.  It never has the opportunity to even sprout.  This is not good soil for growing things.

Beside our garden is some really terrible ground.  The topsoil had been stripped away leaving “rocky soil.”  It really is not good for plants to thrive in.  Occasionally something will start growing there, but it never survives for too long-there is no nourishment and we don’t even bother to water that part.  We are working on building up that soil but for now it really is representative of the rocky soil in the parable.  When the sun gets too hot, when the troubles of this world get to be too much, that little plant that sprouted and began to grow just withers and dies.  It was just not fed very well and had nothing to sustain it.  Dear friend, that is why we need to be fed and watered daily by the very Word of God.

Weeds. Ugh, I cannot stand them in my garden, but sometimes I am lazy and do not pull them when they are small.  I allow them to grow and there have been times when they just take over.  I look out at them and they just have gotten so out of hand that I give up.  Weeds that are allowed to take over like that can be difficult to pull without also pulling out the very plant I am trying to grow.  Best to get at them when they first pop up.  I can get lazy in my spiritual life as well.  Like a person who has eyes but does not see or ears but does not here.  I see those weeds, and I just ignore them because I do not feel like doing the work it takes to remove them. Sigh.  Pretty foolish when I put it like that.

And then there is that good soil.  The soil where the seeds have everything they need and are well cared for.  It is a nutrient rich soil that is watered regularly and has had the weeds pulled so they do not compete.  That plant grows during the growing season and then produces a harvest.  We have an apricot tree in our yard; some years it produces just a few apricots, some years it produces enough for me to make a batch of my favorite jam, and then, like last year, it produces so much I have to keep buying more jars to fill with all the jam.  That is encouraging to me about my own life.  Some years seem very fruitful and others not so much and maybe that is just part of the pattern of our lives.  But whether my harvest is abundant or light I keep myself planted in that very good soil and seek to truly hear and understand.  I dare not skim over even the most familiar parts.

May grace, peace, and mercy abound,