Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. – Psalm 37:4, Amplified Bible (AMP)

According to C. S. Lewis: *

All enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. . . . The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game. . . . I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation [the ultimate end, finish].

When you really enjoy something, you cannot help but praise it in the presence of others. When you truly delight in a person, the same is true. Loving spouses hold up their counterparts in high esteem, and they let other people know just how wonderful their husbands or wives are. Proud parents (and grandparents) do not hesitate to tell others about the accomplishments of their children (grandchildren). Thankful students never hold back telling others who their favorite teacher is. It’s just natural to lift up those things and those people we highly esteem, for as Lewis stated, doing so “but completes the enjoyment.”

How much do we praise God in the presence of others? The answer to this question can be convicting. It is probably safe to say that most of us do not praise Him nearly enough. Some of us, if we’re honest, would have to admit that we never praise Him at all. This lack of praise is a symptom of lack of delight, and this lack of delight strains both our relationship with God and our quality of life on this Earth.

Regarding the latter, in the day-to-day struggle of life, we heap stress upon stress upon our souls in hot pursuit of the things we desire. Oftentimes, we never obtain what we desire, and we can become bitter due to this lack of fulfillment. But, as Psalm 37:4 teaches, those of us who really delight in The Lord will never lack fulfillment. As we delight in our relationship with Him, He will transform our desires from being earthly-focused to heavenly-focused, and when we desire to have what He desires us to have, then He will make sure we get what we want. In other words, when we desire to fulfill our lusts, we can count on not getting everything we want. God is not in the business of satisfying our sinful desires. However, when we desire the good things of God, He will grant them to us, and when He does, both our love for Him and our fulfillment in life will grow.

What do you find yourself bragging about the most? If God is not on your list, then you need to realize why He is not. He is not because you really aren’t excited about Him, and that’s a problem in your Christian walk. To remedy this, remember this truth: to know God is to love God, and to love God is to obey God. Before you can get excited about God, you must truly know who He is. If you are limiting your efforts to know Him to one to three church visits per week, then you’ll never get to the point of delighting in Him. You must walk with Him daily, communing with Him in constant prayer and studying about Him diligently through His Word. You do that, and you will come to love God so much that you cannot help but praise Him when the opportunity arises.

* SOURCE: Excerpt From: Platt, David. Follow Me. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2013-02-05. iBooks.

* ORIGINAL SOURCE: C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (Orlando: Harcourt, 1986), 94–95.

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