Delight your self in the Lord

By Craig Emerson Strain

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psa 37:4-5

We are in a society that is never pleased with you. It is how they want it, because they want you to never be pleased.

It amazes me when I look in a woman's magazine, one page has a story how some woman lost 150 pounds of fat and the next page has a recipe of a cake that makes you gain 20 lbs just reading the ingrediance.

We are in a society that harbors the idea of cutting down debt by purchasing a book or tape to get out of debt. I even listened to a top Christian radio financial counselor that told the call in person that was having financial problems that it was ok to use her credit card to pay for financial and marital counseling because she didn't have the money.

If you watch TV, between the commercial to want you to buy something to enjoy life better, there is a commercial to help you consolidate debt. After you consolidate credit card debt and secure that to your home loan, what if you loose your job? Will you then loose your home?

I thank God that they don't have a way making people shorter. I'm 6' 6" tall, and if some of these magazines or self opinion poles tell me I'm too tall and "I can get rid of that unnecessary height", I'd have to do it just to conform.

And God help me if I didn't have enough hair on my head to please someone. I don't show any signs of baldness, but if I did, I believe I would just polish that chrome dome and let people know, "This is me, God planned me this way!" Of course I could do drugs and get my hair back. I think it's called "Grow again".

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; Jer 1:5

And God help you if you are job hunting. If you are young, you don't have enough experience; and if you are mid career, you don't have the latest certifications. If you have devoted yourself to years of study and now have all of the degree's, you are then over qualified.

And what about your friends, if you like to share your heart with them, they say you talk too much, so if you hold your peace, then they say your mad or have a bad attitude.

And if your a minister and you devote your life to your "sheep". You visit them in the hospital, go to their children's activities, pray for them to be blessed, and God has entrusted you with a good sized congregation; there will be other ministers that will say you are too loose, while they themselves only have a congregation of 10 people because no one can hold up to the "truth" that is preached in their pulpits.

We are in a society that is never pleased with you. It is how they want it, because they want you to never be pleased.

When the Lord showed favor to Joseph in a dream. All his brothers tried to destroy him.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. Gen 37:3-5

The only joy and satisfaction that you will have in this world is your personal relationship with Jesus. Everything else is just temporary.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psa 1:1-3

So when you don't measure up to everyone's expectations, just remember, God didn't make you for them, he made you for himself.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom 8:29-31

But I must add this. How do you treat the people around you? That is important. The people that the Lord has put you around, need to see something different than what they see "in the world".

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Prov 17:17

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Psa 37:23

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Mat 5:16

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