God Speaking

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God…”

(Isaiah 61:10)

This last week saw my family celebrating a momentous birthday. I turned 80 years old! For some strange reason I was quite dreading this particular milestone as I felt that this really meant I was joining the ranks of the elderly and I probably could not contribute much more to society or to those around me, but I was totally taken by surprise by what occurred at the party arranged by my loved ones. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that filled the whole evening, from everybody present. I realised that this celebration was an opportunity for the young ones and the much older ones to express their delight and to show how much I was loved. As I experienced this wonderful feeling, I began to grasp a little of what the Psalmists speak of when they express their great love for the Heavenly Father and I was ashamed to realise that too often my time with the Lord is not always delighting in him and expressing my love, but more like handing him a list of requests that need his urgent attention. When I delved into how the Psalmists greeted The Lord I began to see why so many of them had such a close and loving relationship with him. They came into his presence, with love, praising his name, taking great delight just being with him

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” (Psalm 146:1)

Most birthday parties involve the giving of gifts and mine was no exception and as I opened each loving gift I again thought of how do I show my love to the Lord by the gifts I bring him. God has already given us the most incredible gift to all mankind, his precious son, and Paul cries out in great thanksgiving;

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

So how can we show how much we love our Heavenly Father? What gifts could we bring him? What actions would show our love? How could we bring him great joy?

Fortunately we have a place to turn for guidance, his own Word.

How we think and how we speak is a good indication of how we can reflect the Lord’s love to others and we find that this can be a beautiful gift to bring him great pleasure , and we can keep focused on this by praying this prayer;

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14)

The very action of deciding to devote our lives to him is another beautiful gift we can bring , knowing it will give him great pleasure;

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices , holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1)

Of course we can never out give our gracious Heavenly Father who is the giver of all good gifts, but when we strive to return some of those gifts we are expressing our love for him and knowing this is pleasing to him, brings us closer to a deeper understanding of his all-encompassing love.