GOD DELIGHTS IN HIS OWN

[ Brian’s thoughts of the day: Jan. 19th]

     I was thinking tonight about how much my perception of God has changed over this last 18 months. I have been a Christian since I was a 16 year old at Carmel High School. Yet, my concept of God has changed tremendously in a short period of time. I always knew in my HEAD that God loved me--but in my HEART I don't think I ever really believed that simple fact. Somewhere in the depths of my heart, I felt like God was either angry or disappointed with me. Or worse yet, He was simply ambivalent about me. I was like an orphan who has been adopted by a loving family, yet still struggled with feelings of abandonment. I went on with my life never REALLY believing that God loved me. I mean why would He? I'm broken and we both know that? However, over the last year, God has showed me in so many ways that He not only loves me but adores me. He sees sees us as His beloved children, created in His image, thus He delights in us. Just like I love to be around my kids and love to see my kids happy and joyful--God wants that for His children as well. Although we go through hardships in life, and those hardships bring maturity and growth (I've posted a lot about that lately) that is NOT the end of the story. God wants us to know Him and to be joyful. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts if we simply delight ourselves in Him first. How exciting is that fact? The Creator of the universe loves you and delights in your presence. He is fascinated by you and derives joy simply by seeing you joyful. This whole concept is simply overwhelming to me! 

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 27:13 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

Daneille Snowden [Blog Editor]: Brian and I are friends from our high school youth group and had recently reconnected on facebook. Also, I was there when he first accepted Christ in 1982 at a Keith Green concert. I have been following his Facebook posts on his journey back into intimacy with God and offered to share them on a blog.  Check out my blog: http://snowdenwiththefam-daneille.blogspot.com/