GOD DELIGHTS IN YOU

Ron Gray, Missions & Outreach Pastor

I recently celebrated my birthday, and it has got me thinking. It seems to me that birthdays should primarily be a celebration of the person’s mother. After all, what work did the baby do in the whole process? Moms do most of the heavy lifting. However, as I write this, it dawns on me that I’m viewing this the wrong way. I do that quite often.

The viewpoint I expressed is a reflection of how I tend to tie value to effort and productivity. In this view, we are worth what we produce – it is effort and outcomes that make us worthy of reward and celebration. That is not the way God sees things. That is certainly not how I view my Grandkids. They are awesome just for… well, just for being.

Genesis 1:31 tells us of God’s reaction to all that he made. It is instructive to note that up until the creation of man, days one to five of creation, God recognized what he had made as being “good’ (Genesis 1:25). Upon the creation of man on day six, it all became ‘very good.’

It appears that you and I have a special place in God’s heart. To him, we are ‘very good’.

Man did nothing to aid in their own creation, yet God delighted in their existence. Period. Before any fruit was grown, or seed produced, before a single garden was tended to, or animal named, he assessed them as being very good. God delighted simply in their being. The accomplishment of their assigned duties was yet to come. For God, their very existence was cause for pleasure.

This reminds me of our spiritual creation. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When we were created anew, we did nothing. It was an act of Someone other than ourselves. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:9-10)

There it is again! We are created by an act of God. We exist because he wills it to be so, and his will is always good. God’s delight in you precedes anything you do!

That is worth meditating on: God delights in you – before you do one thing for him. Understanding this frees us from the weight of duty and leads us into a place where our relationship with our Heavenly Father can be one of intimacy, love, and delight. We cannot understand the immensity of God’s love for us until we disconnect that love from our works.

Luke 15 contains Jesus’ parable about the great joy that accompanies the recovery of three lost things – a sheep, a coin, and a wayward son. The theme of these stories is the rejoicing that happens in Heaven when a lost one is recovered. “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (John 15:7, 10, 32)

Each one of us is loved and celebrated by God simply for being, for bearing his image, and for being born again in Christ. In God’s eyes your value is not dependant on what you do. He simply delights in you. So, celebrate yourself and the people in your life. Celebrate those birthdays! And celebrate your salvation, the day of your spiritual birth.

Always remember, God is delighted in you!