Photo Courtesy Of:
"The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing."
~Zephaniah 3:17
Going through a years-long season of legalism can really mess you up, that's for sure.
If you have any experience with legalism of any kind, then you know just how quickly and readily legalism can ruin your view of God. Even though I was raised in church all my life (my birth was literally announced from the baptistry by our pastor at the time the night I was born!), earned the perfect Bible drill scores at the state championships, and went on missions trips and choir events, nevertheless my season of legalism during my teens and early twenties was enough to morph my view of God into something that was anything but biblical.
When you are living as a modern-day Pharisee, believing that you have to have all of your man-made i's dotted and t's crossed, that very quickly leads to your believing God to be a harsh, rigid, judgmental taskmaster who is just waiting to beat you over the head the moment He sees you sin.
You can imagine, then, my astonishment when, while beginning my journey out of legalism, I first stumbled upon this verse we are looking at today.
God? Rejoicing? Over ME?
It was unthinkable.
But it was true. And is still true today.
Friend, God exults over the creation you are and is - every single day! - rejoicing over you, singing over you, and delighting in you!
You are His image bearer. His child. His precious possession. The one for whom He died.
It doesn't matter what legalism may have taught you or what the lies in your own head are trying to tell you. God is daily, moment by moment, in your midst and delighting to be there. He's ready to come to your aid, and He sings with joy over who you are and the relationship He gets to have with you.
Just imagine how different our lives would be if we lived as if we truly believed that!
Reflection Questions:
1) Is it easy or hard for you to accept the fact that the Lord rejoices over you? Not just your friend or mentor or sister, but you yourself?
2) What could you do to make it easier for you to believe in God's great rejoicing?
3) What difference could be made in your life, in your everyday joy and peace, if you were to truly embrace just how much the Lord really does love and delight in you?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for stopping by, we love hearing from you. Please feel free to contact us with any prayer requests or questions by commenting below or emailing us at the About Us page.