Here I am again, still savoring Psalm 37.  This time I am enamored with the word “delight.”

Delight –

1.  Extreme pleasure or satisfaction:  joy

2.  Something that gives great pleasure; to take great pleasure; to give keen enjoyment; to give joy or satisfaction; to please greatly.

What a wonderful word!  This is no mamby, pamby word with a definition that includes terms like extreme, great, keen, please greatly, joy and satisfaction!

In verse 4 of Psalm 37, it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Take extreme pleasure (or satisfaction) in the Lord!  Wow!  Do we even know how to do that?

I must confess that most of the time I do not.  Most of the time I am so weighed down with responsibilities, obligations and the cares of this life that it’s difficult to find delight in much of anything.  However, when I remember what He has done for me, how He has saved me, rescued me, set my feet firmly upon the rock of Jesus Christ and I read the promises in His Word like this one,

“The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.  The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made.  The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.  He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.  The Lord watches over all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.  My mouth will speak in praises of the Lord.  Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever.”

~Psalm 145: 13-21

When I meditate on these things, when I discipline my mind to dwell on the things of the Lord rather than the worrisome, burdensome things of this world, the things I really can’t do anything about – then I am filled with the delight (joy) of my salvation and I take delight in the One who gave that to me.  Worthy is the Lamb!

Come away with us to Wellspring at Rockfish!  It is a wonderful opportunity to delight yourself in your Precious Savior.

Saundra Littleton

Saundra Littleton is in charge of hospitality for Wellspring, which is appropriate since she has a gift for hospitality. If Saundra could give one piece of advice, it would be to put Jesus first in everything you do! Submit yourself to Him wholly. Delight in Him, your Savior, your friend, the Lover of your soul, your Priest and Intercessor, your King, and out of this will come blessing, strength, health, love, peace, endurance, wisdom, discernment, everything you could ever want or need to walk through this life in victory and glorifying God.

Because I love words, I have decided to share what I think of as “Nugget Words” with you. Some words in the Bible are especially rich so that finding them and discovering the fullness of their definition is like finding a gold nugget. Your understanding of the passages where they are used is tremendously enhanced by learning about them. I won’t try to catch you up on all the words I have been discovering over the last 30+ years, but I will share the new ones I find from time to time. I am creating a new category on the blog for these words, called “Word Nuggets”.

Last week I was reading a passage that is one of my favorites in the New Testament, Philippians 4:6-7. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I memorized this passage early in my Christian walk and have relied on it often to remind myself not to give in to worry and anxiety. My mind seems to gravitate toward worry sometimes. I will be thinking about a situation of concern to me. I may even start out committing the problem to the Lord. But before I know it my mind has turned the prayer into a worry session. 

This time, as I was repeating the verse to myself from memory, I decided to look it up and read it directly from my Bible, just to make sure I was quoting it right. I happened to pick up my New American Standard Bible where the verse reads slightly different from the way I had memorized it. I had memorized the peace of God as “which passes understanding” but my NAS reads as I have quoted above, “which surpasses all comprehension.” So I got out my Word Study Dictionary and looked it up. 

The Greek word translated “comprehension” is nous, which means “the mind, the organ of mental perception and apprehension, the organ of conscious life.” What Paul is saying here is that the peace that God gives me when I pray and commit my concerns to Him is greater than my mind, my thinking. The peace of God, is bigger and carries me further than my thinking can even conceive of, and it even overcomes my thoughts.

The Greek word that is translated “minds” later in the same verse is noema. It means “a thought or concept of the mind; the understanding, the mind itself.” In this part of the verse Paul is saying that the peace of God guards our minds (our thoughts and understanding) so that we don’t lose our focus on Jesus. WOW!

As I have been meditating on this passage since reading these definitions, I am seeing that God here COMMANDS me to “be anxious for nothing.” Then He gives me the antidote to anxiety: He tells me that I can, instead of being anxious, pray about everything and ASK GOD FOR HELP (make supplication to Him). I can do this with THANKSGIVING, knowing that God has promised to hear my prayer and answer me. In turn, God will give me His peace. And His peace is GREATER THAN MY THINKING. God’s peace can even OVERCOME my anxious thoughts! God’s peace will protect my thoughts from straying away from the truth and safety that is in Jesus alone. The peace of God will keep me focused on Jesus instead of on the anxiety that strives to overpower in my mind.

Did you know the peace of God is more powerful than your mind? I am purposing to spend more time praying and making supplications, giving thanks and resting in His peace, and MUCH less time worrying! How about you?