The God Journey…
Does God Enjoy You?
Wayne Jacobsen
None of us can truly enjoy Him until we know how much He enjoys us.
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The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1646 said that the chief end of man "is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." What a great statement and those words have resonated with many believers in the ensuing centuries.
The God most Christians know, however, is not one to be enjoyed. Most people associate fear or reverential awe with God's presence and usually try to please, appease, serve, or surrender to him without even thinking of enjoying him.
The fact is that none of us can truly enjoy him until we know how much he enjoys us. Now, that's a mind bender for many. Even if we are to enjoy God, they think it is something we have to make ourselves do in spite of how holy and demanding he presents himself to be. And yet, Jesus wasn't like that when he came in human flesh. He seemed to enjoy being around his creation, even those still lost in sin.
Now, I used to believe he could enjoy me when I could finally get my life together and do all the things he desired that would bring glory to him. I'm 63 and that hasn't happened yet, even if I did pretend back in the day that I was at least doing more than most others I knew, so he must have thought himself fortunate to have a son like me. His love and freedom has allowed me to see my life in more honest terms, knowing the cracks and frailties I still have. And yet he seems to enjoy me, much like I enjoy my grand-kids. I don't think they're perfect, and even when they are being completely obnoxious, I still love the little dears with all my heart. I may not enjoy what they are doing at any given moment, but I am no less delighted in them as people learning to find their way in a difficult world.
These days I hear many authors and sociologists using a new definition for friendship that includes enjoyment. Your friends are those you enjoy being with. When you know you're going to meet them, your heart anticipates that time with joy. And friendship is best defined where your friends enjoy being with you as much as you enjoy being with them. Doesn't that make sense? Aren't those the people you treasure most and bring the most joy into your life?
What if it were true that you delight God's heart even more today than I delight in my grand-kids? What would it change in you if you truly believed it. Somehow God finds us humans quite endearing, even when we are lost in the pain and brokenness of a fallen world. He delights in you even in the midst of your doubts, fears, temptations, and failures. He does not see us as the summation of our brokenness, but as the person he made you to be that is being swallowed by those other things.
He delights in you, not in what you do! And he knows that the more you enjoy him, the more you'll find freedom from the things that twist you. Transformation grows out of our knowing that God enjoys us and that we can enjoy him as a gracious Father.
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