God Delights in Me? 

I love Bible study and I just adore digging into God’s Word.  Sometimes God uses His Word to teach me, challenge me and even chastise me.  

I’m studying the names of God and what an amazing adventure this study is becoming.  I’m looking at WHO God is and Wow!  What a mind-boggling, rock your socks ride this is.   I tend to look at God’s Word and think “now how do I apply this to my life” and that’s not a bad thing, in fact if I could probably apply a good bit more to my life. 

But as I study the names of God I don’t think about how it applies to my life, I stand slack-jawed at the majesty that is the King of Kings.   Yesterday I was studying and God brought me to Zephaniah 3:17 – now before I say anymore, let me just be honest.  I had to think “is Zephaniah a book of the Bible?”  Guess what, it is and it’s a pretty amazing little book in the OT.  It’s way in the back with Habakkuk, Nahum and those little, lesser known books.  Take it from me, God has put some power stuff in those books.  Check them out.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Zeph 3:17 (NASB)

This verse is just so filled with wonderful God stuff.  In the beginning is God is in your midst.  Seriously, how wonderful is this?  God is in your midst?!  Who doesn’t love that?  Well, maybe if you’re up to something you shouldn’t be up to, but otherwise “God is in your midst” is a wonderful and wonder-inspiring truth.  God is in our midst today.  Just take a minute and breathe that in. 

He’s a mighty warrior – amen!  God is not only a loving, grace giving, merciful God.  He is also a mighty warrior!  He is my warrior.

He exults over you with joy – and revels in me?!  Yes, in me and in you! 

He quiets us with His love – love in this verse is the Hebrew word ‘ahab’ which means to  delight in.  How amazing is this? The Lord God delights in me!  And in you, too! 

And the last part of this verse just takes my breath away – ‘He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.’ The NIV reads “..rejoice over you with singing”  shouts of joy, singing, it’s all amazing stuff. 

Can you believe that God , the creator of the universe.  The One who is the great I AM loves you so much that He rejoices over you with shouts of joy! 

I’m telling you, I’m loving God’s Word!