Learning to Delight at 4:30 am

I am in Bend, Oregon this morning - my last morning here! It has been an enjoyable trip related to my secular employment, but I am glad to be able to go home. Since my wife was unable to come, I have been here alone. I mean without any of the normal distractions of being in your own home with your own wife and family. As a result, I set some goals for myself while I was here. I determined since I was relatively distraction free, except of course for those riveting re-runs of CSI, I wanted to have a more rich devotional time with the Lord. After all I didn't anyone else to interact with. My goals were three fold: 1) to have a keener/richer devotion time; 2) to draw closer to God in intimacy; 3) to enhance my walk with Him. I determined the first morning why I come to the Lord so early in the morning: that is my best time and He is worthy of worship and devotion. I struggle with making sure I am not coming to God for the sole purpose of getting something or benefiting in some way. I come before our God because of His nature and Character, in other words, because He is worthy. I can not not come before our awesome, majestic, holy, and gracious God. To do otherwise is pure lunacy. God has given to us whom He has chosen and redeemed the best that He can give, that is Himself. I come to delight myself in the Lord. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the LORD..." (NKJV). The Hebrew seems to give us the idea of "to be happy about, take exquisite delight or to make merry over." So I come to God happy about meeting with God, taking an exquisite delight in Him as a "person."

Beleive me, I know how hard it is to be "delightful" at 4:30 am. When that alarm goes off and you have to throw back those warm covers and actually put your feet on the floor, delight is not the first thought in my mind.

It is always worth it. God never disappoints! So, my time here this week has been richer, I have drawn closer in intimacy, and I hope I have enhanced my walk with Him. My wife will know if that goal has been accomplished. You will know and those whom I interact with will know.

For now, I am delighting in my God! I am taking joy, making merry, and deriving pleasure from fellowshipping, worshipping, and loving the LORD God who alone is worthy! Yes, I am excited to leave Bend and head back to Longview and my wife!

Delight in Him and Him alone!

Gregg