Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
—Psalm 37:4 (NLT)
This verse in the New Living Translation says to “take delight in the Lord.” When you take something, you own it. You make it yours. It becomes your identity—who you are.
Joy is tangible in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit calls for you to take it—to own the joy Jesus bought for you. Jesus didn’t give His life for you to strive in shame and to live in fear. He wants you to possess what He possessed for you. His righteousness. His healing. His freedom. His deliverance. His strength. His peace. His joy! All of His riches in glory are yours! When you take joy in what He has given you—when you praise Him for it—you receive your heart’s desires.
“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10, NLT)! You take possession of joy from a position of strength. Joy is yours when you know the priceless worth Christ has poured into your life. And when you know how much God values you, you can “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10, NLT).
“Always be full of joy in the Lord,” Paul wrote. “I say it again—rejoice” (Philippians 4:4, NLT). Paul reminds the Philippians that when they choose to celebrate the joy Jesus has given them, they shall be full of joy. Your attitude determines the value of His gift. When you choose to praise and believe Him for His promises, then you know that they are yours. When you are renewed in your mind by God’s Truth, you own the new identity Jesus has purchased for you.
Jesus knows your heart’s desires. He placed His own desires within you the moment you were born again. He fulfilled them in the spiritual realm. For you to understand what this means for you, the Holy Spirit changes the perception of your mind. He renews your thoughts with God’s Truth. He transforms your understanding from the natural realm to the spiritual. Your circumstances and your pain and your struggles are facts in the natural world, but they are not Truth God reveals in His Word. When the way you think is transformed by the Truth of the Word, you no longer believe what you see, hear, or feel in the natural world. You believe the Truth of what can’t be seen, heard or felt. Truth becomes real in the natural realm when you believe in who you are in Christ.
His promises in the Word are Truths for your life, but you must own them and make them yours. When you grasp the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the new life Jesus has created in you, you believe beyond any doubt that His precious Truths are YOURS. And when you believe, you seize His joy.
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit” (Psalm 51:12, NKJV)!
Allow the Holy Spirit to change your perception of who you are in Christ from who you were before you received Him in your life. Be transformed by the Truth of the new creation He has made you! Take joy in the change He has wrought. You are His heart’s desire, and He is yours. Seize your identity and seize His joy!
© 2021 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2021/02/seize-his-joy.html
No comments:
Post a Comment