I took a bite into the soft, warm rosemary bread and delight
flowed through me. “Mmmhhh” was all I could say. It tasted exactly how I had
imagined, but better. I had waited all day for this bite and it was wonderful. This strange warm happiness rushed through me. Yes, over one little piece of rosemary
bread. I know it sounds totally ridiculous.
I never would have imagined that God could use one little
bite to convict me so deep. “Ashlee,” He sweetly whispered. “Ashlee, Do you delight
in me like you are delighting in that little piece of bread?” Immediately my
heart sunk. It sunk, because I knew the answer. I hung my head embarrassed.
And God sweetly and gently pulled me in
and called me to delight in Him. My mind was taken back to Psalm 42:1 “As the
deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.” And there I
stood my heart breaking, my head hanging over one little piece of bread.
You see I really do love the Lord and I truly desire to
follow Him, but I am not sure I know what it means to delight in Him. I am not
sure I know what it means to really relish in who He is. Recently, while studying covenant, God convicted me hard about the joy of being His covenant partner. God revealed to me that I was wearing His robe of righteousness as a robe of burden, instead of as a robe joy. At the time we were studying about David and Jonathan and what it means to exchange robes in covenant, and I caught myself saying, can you imagine how special David felt to wear the robe of a prince? So now that I look back, I can see how God has been preparing the way for this little word: delight
So there I stood a girl with bread and I knew
that God had given me a word to focus on in 2014. I really didn’t want to do
the trendy, bloggy, thing and pick a word for the year. Yet as I prayed about
it further I felt the Lord pulling me in and showing me that I need to learn to
delight in Him, in His Word, in His people, and in the ministry He has given
me.
I sit here, still thinking about that little piece of
bread, and grateful that God would use it to show me such a deep truth that I
was ignoring. As I walk through 2014, delight will be my trendy, bloggy, word
of the year. Join me as I learn how to delight in Jesus, in the Word, in His
people, and in ministry.
Yep, just call me the girl with bread.
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ReplyDeleteGood Blog; in my 53 years of life, i've learned how to differentiate and identify which type of headaches i used to get. Same thing with the Delightful moments with God, I've learned how to Delight in the Lord in different ways. Like the moment you had with the bread & the thoughts of God …I can be looking out the window of the car as joe is driving, and gaze at the beauty of the sun ray coming down, or the wooded areas we pass, the vastness of His creation and floods of amazement comes over me, knowing God created all of this. I often wonder if anyone else takes a moment to enjoy it. Then there are the moments when I delight in the Lord with a smiling heart when my kids were / are granted "good" things that may be as tangible as a job granted, or other adults loving on my kids or as small as a day they are IN church. Of course there are those moments for me that bring delight in the Lord times, times coming from experiencing extremely stressful situations, yes even from dark times I can Delight in the Lord. If I stop in my tracks, close my eyes in the midst of my pain or confusion or doubt, the Holy Spirit reminds me that God sees all things, knows all things, and to persevere in my faith because behind it all, He is standing. Through my tears and fears I've learned how fortunate i am for just being His child and that I can escape the turmoil in my mind if I run to Him, spend the necessary time in my prayer closet for there is where the miracle of "Delighting" happens for me. Yes there are many different moments in worshiping in singing to the Lord, perhaps that is why I'm so passionate when i'm singing to the Lord, because I know my trade for the sacrifice of praise comes the joy of the Lord. Heavy hearted becomes lighter. What a wonderful subject you wrote about. So many moments i could mention but i treasure each one.
ReplyDeleteI know you Delight in the Lord from your own experiences and that is what is all about, thanks be to God that we are not all cookie-cutter humans in the eyes of the Lord, and we get to experience Him each in our own ways, even while there are some moments when we do, all is good with Him as our inner focus. Love your writings, I love to write as well, English was my favorite subject in school, and i loved writing.
I knew there was a Delight in my heart with you, and your writings is another admiration I have for you, you're so lovely my precious one. I love you so much.