Recently my husband and I were blessed to spend a few days in Boston visiting with my daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren―Clio who is three and Max who is one.  Because they don’t live near us, Joe and I are intentional about carving out time to spend with our Boston family.  What a delight it was to spend time with them, especially with the grandkids! We spent time at the park, the aquarium, and even an animal farm. (Yes, that’s Joe and my grandson, Max, having fun at the sheep barn.)

The best times, though, were the morning hours when Clio and Max crawled onto our laps and just cuddled; the quiet times we spent reading a book or building a block tower. We “facetime” regularly, but it is this face-to-face time that truly deepens our relationship with them―a relationship where they are delighted to be with us as we delight in them!

It is interesting that in Psalm 37:4 David was inspired to write about “taking delight.” He wrote:

“Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

As I read and reread that verse, I pondered over that phrase “take delight in the Lord.” It’s a beautiful phrase, but how do we live it? How do we take delight in the Lord? Here are my thoughts:

Like the delightful time Joe and I spent with our grandchildren, taking delight in the Lord means spending time with Him―time in “conversational” prayer! Not just praying at God with our list of needs, but spending time in prayer where we just enjoy His presence. Certainly I’m not saying that we shouldn’t come to the Lord with our needs when we pray, in fact the Lord invites us to. But we mustn’t neglect spending time when we pray to enjoy His presence, to listen to what He desires to speak to us. Sarah Young in her devotional “Jesus Calling” conveys the heart of God with these words, written as if God were speaking directly to us:

“Sit quietly in my presence while I bless you. Make your mind like a still pool of water, ready to receive the thoughts I drop into it.”

This is harder to do than we think. It’s hard to quiet ourselves, to make our minds “like a still pool of water,” purging our mind of the problems and concerns of the day, and just “be” in His presence. But that is how you build a relationship―not just talking at God with your requests but allowing Him to speak to you, to drop His thoughts into your quieted mind.  It’s taking delight in the Lord by delighting in His presence as He “speaks” to you with inspired thoughts that encourage, lead, and comfort. And when you take delight in the Lord, there’s a promise―He will give you the desires of your heart.

An awesome promise, but here’s the thing! When you develop that conversational relationship with the Lord, delighting in His presence, your desires change from being self-focused to God-focused. He transforms your desires to line up with His perfect will for your life. Your desires change from being the things you want, to being who God wants you to be, to what He wants you to do―desires that reap eternal blessings. 

So carve out some time to delight in the Lord as you pray. Play a worship song or read a few verses of scripture to get your mind focused on Him. Then let your mind become like a pool of still water and allow God to fill your mind with His thoughts. Take delight in the Lord as He delights in you!