The Faith Question Worth Asking

Do you know what delights your spouse? Do you know what delights you? Do you know what delights God?

These are very good questions to ask.

Funny, I have been married to my darling husband for 30 years, and I had never stopped to ask him this question until a few days ago. How could I have been married to him for SO long and never asked this question? I just assumed I knew but …

I was so surprised by his answer.

I began to wonder about how blind I might be to many other things.

His answer to “What delights you?” was … me. I thought he was going to say surfing!

I’m so glad I topped the list.

After that, I began to wonder about how blind I might be to many other things. If I would just take the time to stop and ask, perhaps I would find out a great deal more about those I do my very best to try to please, especially God.

So I began to ask: “What delights you, GOD?”

Here is what I discovered.

1. God delights in being loved.
Hosea 6:6 states: “For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice … ” How amazing. God would rather have a relationship with me than celebrate what I can “do for him.”

Have you discovered that kind of love relationship with God? My prayer life is a very good indicator of whether I am “DOING” more than “LOVING.”

Related: The Most Attractive Faith

To delight God, I must learn how to love him. When I am in love, I want to please my lover. I want to please him in all I do. His word states that if I love him, I will keep his commandments, not out of duty, but because I love him. When I am not faithful to the good he desires for me, it breaks his heart. When I see my sin as breaking the heart of God, it changes everything. I no longer want to be rebellious. I want to mend and protect. Why? “We love because He first loved us.” — 1 John 4:19.

That is sort of irresistible to me.

2. God delights in being known.
Hosea 6:6 goes on to state: I desire “knowledge of God rather than holocausts.”

Hmmm. How do I gain this, I asked? Through reading and studying his sacred word and asking him to reveal truth about himself in it to me. I love that he is not afraid to show himself to me — all of himself, as best as I can grasp it. “When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me.” — Jeremiah 29:13-14

He WANTS to be found, to be known, to be loved.

Interestingly, God wants the same things I want: to be sought after, fully known and fully loved.

He wants me to come unashamedly to him. He is not afraid of my sin. He can handle it. And unbelievably, he loves me still.

Related: The Power of Forgiveness

If I can find my sins in his wounds, there they can be healed. He has already absorbed them, taken them into himself and offers forgiveness and healing of them. He covers me. He took my nakedness and my shame upon the cross so that I do not have to hide from him any longer. He extends to me his goodness and his righteousness in exchange for my nakedness, shame and guilt.

What a God! How could I not want to delight him? To love him? To know him? As he does me! And when I do, he might just surprise me.

“Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart’s desire.” — Psalm 37:4

Melissa Overmyer is founder of  Something Greater Ministries in Washington, D.C., and has taught the Bible for more than 30 years.