A teaching by Rev. Barbara Williams, President of the Ministry of the Watchman International
Week of November 11-15, 2024
DELIGHT – Great pleasure or gratification; joy. Something that affords great pleasure or enjoyment. To please greatly. A preference, wish or choice.
MONDAY
He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.
Psalm 18:19
I bring God great joy. He delights in me. Why? Because I delight in Him. Whatever we give to God, He multiplies and gives back to us. Our giving is only a token, a symbol of how we really feel towards Him, but God delivers the goods. The psalmist here has noticed something. There are many who confess their love for God and are good church members, but do we all delight ourselves in the Lord? When the Lord is our delight, there is a certain kind of fruit that is produced by this interaction. The fruit in this case is deliverance from each and every trial that we face. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19). Righteousness brings its own reward. When we are in right standing with God, then we delight in Him. He shows His delight in us by bringing us a mighty deliverance. How do we delight in the Lord?
If you are in need of healing, there is good news! Proverbs 4:20-22 SAYS:
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
So there is life and health in God’s word. Since God’s word is medicine, we must take it like we would a prescription. I suggest three times a day, like you would your food. Remember, healing is the children’s bread. Consider this your “dose” for today. Remember, read, and meditate three times a day the following:
Rx: Isaiah 58:8 ~ Isaiah 58:8 ~ Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
If you’ve never studied the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we invite you to join us as we read through the Bible in a year. Read and meditate on these chapters this week:
November 11: 2 Kings 24, Hebrews 6, Joel 3, Psalms 143
November 12: 2 Kings 25, Hebrews 7, Amos 1, Psalms 144
November 13: 1 Chronicles 1-2, Hebrews 8, Amos 2, Psalms 145
November 14: 1 Chronicles 3-4, Hebrews 9, Amos 3, Psalms 146-147
November 15: 1 Chronicles 5-6, Hebrews 10, Amos 4, Psalms 148-150
November 16: 1 Chronicles 7-8, Hebrews 11, Amos 5, Luke 1:1-38
November 17: 1 Chronicles 9-10, Hebrews 12, Amos 6, Luke 1:39-80
TUESDAY
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2
We delight God by avoiding certain things and doing others. When we choose good company, or the company that God approves, we stand in His righteousness. God wants us to keep the same company He does. When we choose the company of the saints over sinners, the wise over the foolish, the God fearing over the forward, and the meek over the proud, then we have delight in the Lord. We then have to further choose to embrace certain other things. We must then embrace the knowledge of God at every turn. We must delight in the laws of God. We must meditate upon them day and night, and observe and do them. God’s word and doing His word must become our delight. When the laws and ways of God become our delight, then we are like trees planted by rivers of living water. We have a continual source and supply of all things good for our spiritual growth and nourishment. Because we delight in Him, He delights in us and shows His delight by prospering us in everything that we do.
WEDNESDAY
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He trusts us. Imagine having the type of relationship with God that allows us to have His permission to have anything our hearts desire. What trust He has in us when He is our delight, and how easy it is to delight ourselves in the Lord! Giving God our full attention, so that His word is ever present in our hearts and in our minds, is a delight to Him. These things are not mysterious. They may be new to us and may take some getting used to, but we can master the task of delighting ourselves in the Lord. Jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask what you will, and the Father will do it for you (John 15:7). This is also a delight to the Lord. You delight so much in His law that you have hidden it in your heart and you execute the word of God. You are so like His son at this time that your joint inheritance privileges begin to manifest (Romans 8:17). What an awesome thing to have the Lord as your delight.
THURSDAY
Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you.
Job 22:22-27a
When you sit down to read and study the word of God, are you a procrastinator, hoping to put it off for another few minutes, so that you will not have to read? This is a problem for most of us at one time or another. God knows that our flesh will fight us for His attention, so He forgives our weakness and gives us His strength for the task. God wants very much to help us and to heal us. He brings healing to those in whom He delights. In Job’s case, Job was so consumed with his present condition, that he ceased to delight himself in the Lord. Sudden calamity would be a tremendous test for us all. We can put off our normal routine of meditating on God’s word and delighting in Him. But we can repent and turn back to Him and again stand in righteousness and obtain all the privileges that His covenant of peace gives. The scripture says if we will receive the law from His mouth and lay up His words in our hearts and return to Him, we shall be built up (healed), prosper and will have our delight in Him again. Making God our delight allows us to be healed (Exodus 15:26).
FRIDAY
If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13-14
The prophet is giving instructions to a nation who had forgotten God. One of the primary ways God had employed to keep man mindful of his need for constant contact with God was the system of holy days. God chose the Sabbath as a day when man would rest from his normal activities and spend time with God. We have a continual Sabbath when we delight ourselves in the Lord. We have a Sabbath and a tabernacle on the inside of us, because when you are born again, God dwells in you. You can come away with the Lord at any time. You can receive His word and delight yourself in Him at any time. You can live in a state of constant delight in the Lord. When the Lord is your delight, you delight Him, and He will cause you to be victorious over all the things that bother you. You will inherit and subdue the earth, riding upon its high places. You will inherit the wealth of the earth because He trusts you. Oh that we would allow the Lord to be our delight. We will ride above the high places of the earth!