He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
Testimony
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He Delights in You
by Gilly Mathiesen
Psalm 18:19, NIV
David, who wrote Psalm 18, was a man after God’s heart, and he had grasped an understanding of his heavenly Father’s love for him. You may have heard the words ‘He delights in you’ before, but I want to encourage you to really ponder them and let them sink from your head to your heart.
The Hebrew word for ‘delights’ is ‘chaphets’ which is a word used primarily in communicating a feeling or expression of delight or pleasure in something or someone. It is often used to convey a deep, heartfelt desire or enjoyment. What a precious thought! You put a smile on your Daddy God’s face each day and bring joy to His heart.
Even before Jesus had started His ministry, His heavenly Father expressed His love and delight in Him. ‘And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy”’ (Matthew 3:17, NLT).
We can be hit with condemning thoughts when we fail or fall into sin, and it can make us feel unworthy of God’s love. But His word tells us that ‘if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). One prayer of repentance removes the distance between us and the Lord in an instant.
John 3:16 is a familiar verse to many of us. The Amplified version states, ‘For God so (greatly) loved and dearly prized the world, that He (even) gave His (One and) only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him (as Saviour) shall not perish but have eternal life’.
Take a few minutes to consider this incredible fact. You are greatly loved by your heavenly Father. His heart fills with joy and delight just by you being you, and you are created by Him for relationship with Him (Colossians 1:16). Nothing else can satisfy us or fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts but Him. Zephaniah 3:17 says that He rejoices over you with gladness and that He will bring you quietness with His love. It continues, ‘He will delight in you with shouts of joy’. That is one very happy father! This is a father who has a heartfelt longing for relationship with you and me.
No matter what you are walking through in this moment, His love is worth taking a moment to rejoice over. His great love endures forever (Psalm 136), and the love He has for you is everlasting. That is an incredible truth which will never change, and is forever. You were loved by Him before you ever knew Him, and you will always be loved by Him.
Gilly Mathiesen Gilly has a heart to see broken lives healed. She got involved in Christian ministry at a young age, working as a missionary for some years, as well as teaching at a Christian school. She has been involved with Ellel Ministries for the past 10 years and trained and worked on the team in Northern Ireland before moving to Denmark in 2016. She and her husband Steen have been pioneering an Ellel work there since early 2018. They long to see people healed and set free to be all that God has designed them to be.
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.
