When God Smiles.

Does God smile when He looks upon you? Or do you think He maybe looking sternly down waiting for the next error? The truth is, more than just smiling God is delighted when He looks at you and that has nothing to do with your behaviour. Maybe if we could see God’s face, we’d be surprised to see Him delighting in us. God desires more than just right behaviour. God’s grace has taught us that. 

I delight in my son and daughter. I’m delighted that they exist and that has nothing to do with their behaviour. They do things I ask them not to and sometimes we have to have words with them but I love them passionately. Since having kids and delighting in them I have marvelled at how much this is how God sees us.
Look at Psalm 139
1O Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!
Here we have an intimate picture of King David writing his view behind the curtain and seeing God’s delight in him.
Wouldn’t we be much better followers of Jesus when we realised that God delights in us. Prayer would be more about spending quality time with our beloved Lord and less like a shopping list of needs/wants or anxious thoughts.
Our obedience wouldn’t be something we measure or critique ourselves on, but rather our obedience would be a fruit of us loving and enjoying being with the Lord.
That inspires us to see what Jesus really came for. It reminds us that we can all fall into the trap of beating ourselves up about the things we do wrong rather than delighting the God who is delighting in us and removed our sins from us on the cross by the blood of His son Jesus.
When we chose to follow the promptings of God’s Spirit and walk beside Him in step, we are saying to God, I love you and I chose to delight in You. God desires people who love Him over people that try to get every part of life right. It’s never been about performance but rather about resting in His love and delight in us. When we do that, our love for Jesus increases and we find ourselves naturally desiring to do the things that please God. Prayer becomes a wonderful interaction rather than just a something to do, or guilty because we haven’t.
In Luke 11:9-13 we hear the words of Jesus say to us, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you… How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?
What a promise.
 
Dave Maharey.