How can God possibly delight in us? Most days it’s quite a stretch just to believe that He loves and forgives us. But that He actually delights in us and rejoices over us, has passionate affections for us, and is totally devoted to us—that’s asking a lot!
The truth is that we all have a spiritual sense cultivated in us by the enemy which he has been using to slander God deep in our hearts. This body of lies makes us feel condemned and rejected by God, a disappointment to Him, displeasing and grievous. It makes the Father seems stern and distant, unaffectionate, even unhappy with us. This all-too-easily stirs up deep feelings of insecurity and inferiority. We cringe in fear and draw back. That’s the wrong way to go!
Happily, the truth is the very opposite of these spiritual feelings. Unhappily, many times we let those old thoughts and feelings rule over us anyway—in direct contradiction of the gospel. We may cherish our spiritual sense, but the truth is it is lying to us, if it is making God seem in any way against us (Romans 8:31-39) or that He is anything other than the great-hearted, joy-filled Father of prodigals that Jesus reveals Him to be (Luke 15:11-32; John 14:8-11). This body of lies must be cast down!
Vigorously challenge the false claims of that sinister spiritual sense by bringing your heart to believe the blazing truth of our heavenly Father’s delight in you.
Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:14-17
This passage is about us! God has taken the judgment of sin that was against us out of the way. He is in our midst—indeed, He is living inside of us. And yet it still feels that somehow this cannot be true for us. How can the Father rejoice over us who are so weak and sin prone? How can He take delight in us—even when we are at our worst? Encourage your heart by working to believing these five great truths:
1) God delights in you because He always sees you as you really are—His vision is perfect. He delights in what He sees about you. He sees your deep heart. He sees your true nature.
a) He always sees you as He created you to be in His image (Genesis 1:27; Jeremiah 1:5) before sin began defacing His work.
b) He always sees you as you will be in heaven—fully restored to His image (1 John 3:2).
c) He always sees you as the new creation that you already are in Christ—even when your new life is being submerged under the old and invisible to you (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
2) God delights in you because you said “Yes!” to Jesus.
a) He never forgets that the stakes are high and that you are ALLOWING Him to save you from the hell He never wanted for you (by saying yes to His offer of salvation) and that you are WANTING eternal life with Him (1 Timothy 2:3).
b) He never forgets what His Son had to suffer for everyone that lives and He is delighted that you are not letting that suffering be wasted—you are WANTING the blood applied to your life. This gains an inheritance for His Beloved Son (Ephesians 1:18).
3) God delights in you because He is love (1 John 4:8). Joy, love and mercy flow in endless superabundance out of His Great heart towards all that He has created. Just as surely as the sun always blazes, our Father has a fiery passion to love you. It is who He is. It is what He delights in doing. It comes easy to Him. And now that the cross has cleared the way for Him to fully release it to you, He is able to satisfy His heart by taking delight in loving you.
4) God delights in you because the Blood truly has cancelled out your sins (Romans 3:24). In our own eyes our sins are enormous and indeed the weight of even one sin would crush life out of us in His holy presence. But compared to what the blood does to sin, our sins are as nothing more than a drop of ink in the ocean of love and mercy that flows from the cross. Get this: 5 billion persons living (plus all the billions dead and yet to come) have their sins potentially covered and cleansed by the Blood. It is finished. Atonement has been fully made!
5) God delights in you because He delights in the work He has assigned Himself to do—be your Savior (Isaiah 45:21; 60:16). He doesn’t get tired of His “job”—on the contrary, He loves saving you with all that that requires of seemingly endless conversations about mercy, trust and love, endless prayer requests, and endless need for encouragement and correction. It would wear us out—but for Him it is delightful! Haven’t you noticed that there is always someone who enjoys a job you despise? For God, saving you is a good day’s work. Besides He never loses sight of where the work is going and of the real progress that He has been making.
It is most emphatically not about you, about how unlovely you may be in your eyes. It is about how loving He is and how desirable you look to Him in His eyes. So, if you think His love for you is blind to your faults, don’t try to talk Him over to your point of view—put on some gospel glasses and start seeing things His way! He is determined to have the last Word, a forever Word, a Word of endless Love and Delight. My advice? Try to get used to it…
For more on escaping self-rejection see The Father’s Heart and Love Thyself!.
About the Author: Steve Evans
For over a decade Steve Evans and Healing Streams have been helping people recover inner peace and freedom. Through Forerunners4Him he has been showing how we can be saved for heaven and teaching the way to live a Spirit filled life on earth. Go now to receive a completely free primer, Getting to Heaven and/or an introduction to Living in the Spirit at forerunners4him.org. 
