To Love Is to Enjoy

According to Dr. Charles Carter, one of the aspects of divine love is that it enjoys what it loves. Other religions envision their gods as angry and petulant, always in need of appeasing. But we have a God who is gloriously happy singing over His people with joy. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness…he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV). Think of what it would be like to hear God singing. Then imagine that He is singing over you! I like to go to sleep at night thinking that God is singing over me.

The angels sang at the creation, but God is singing over us! We are His delight because He loves us so much.

God’s desire to impart good to us is evident in what He created for us. John says in Revelation 4:11 that God’s purpose in creation was His own pleasure. But much of the thrill of making something is often because we love the one for whom we’re preparing it. A girl adds flowers and candles to the table for her fiancé because she loves him and enjoys pleasing him.

Could it be that God delights in His creation because He made it for us to enjoy, and it gives Him joy to please us?

Let’s enjoy God’s creation, seeing it as an expression of His love for us. We can look at the beautiful mountains, clouds, flowers, and animals, and say, “Thank You, Lord, for loving me so much You created all this for me to enjoy!”

Perhaps noone enjoyed the beauty God created than Maltbie Davenport Babcock. As he left for his daily walks, Rev. Babcock would tell his wife, “I’m off to see my Father’s world!” After his death, hino one wife published a poem he has written with these words, which is now a beloved hymn:

“This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.”

Thank You Father, for loving us so much You created all things for us to enjoy.

God “who richly provides everything for enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16).

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).