Deuteronomy 6:5
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 1:1–3
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Philippians 4:4–5
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”
Psalm 43:4
“Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.”
Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Lamentations 3:24
“I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.””
Psalm 73:23–26
“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 119:57–58
“You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.”
Luke 10:38–42
“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.””
Luke 15:28–32
““The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’””
You have been with me always.
She has chosen the good portion.
God doesn’t promise us health.
God doesn’t promise us wealth.
God doesn’t promise us an escape from grief.
God does promise this inheritance, this portion. Him.
But the problem is, if you don’t know how to delight in that, you will miss that which will never be taken from you.
If you do, you will delight in something you’ll never be without.
What do you delight in?
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis
What if our greatest delight is found in the good portion, our portion, that will not be taken from us?
What would that look like?
That’s the journey before us.