Delighting To Do God’s Will

Parents are overjoyed when their kids make good decisions. See, parents really do love their kids and want the best for them (shocker to some kids!), and parents generally do know what are the best choices for their kids to make (again, big shocker to some kids). But part of parenting is allowing kids to make decisions on their own as they get older, and that can be challenging on both the kids and the parents because with every decision there are consequences, whether good or bad.

Parents are especially overjoyed when their kids make good decisions because they decide in their mind and heart to do the right thing, not because they feel like they have to for any other reason.

God is delighted when we do his will. See, his will is the best for us and his way is the best way. He does not force us to do his will, but rather he allows us to choose. Our decisions have consequences. God is especially happy when we delight in doing his will, when we live in accordance with his will out of a grateful heart.

David sought to do God’s will. He got it right most of the time, but not always. Despite his imperfections, he was known as a man after God’s own heart. In Psalm 40 he writes:

Psalm 40:8
⁸ I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.

Jesus always delighted to do God’s will. It was never a burden to him. He did everything that God the Father wanted him to do, exactly when God wanted him to do it, exactly the way that God wanted him to do it, and always with a pure heart. He was always delighting to do God’s will.

Hebrews 10 reminds us that what David described in Psalm 40 was ultimately fulfilled perfectly through Jesus.

Hebrews 10:1-10
¹ Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. ²  Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? ³  But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. ⁴  For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁵ Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: “You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. ⁶ You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. ⁷ Then I said, “See — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O God.”

⁸ After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), ⁹  he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. ¹⁰  By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

So, when we read the Bible, serve our neighbor, pray, attend worship services, show love to someone, help someone in need, get together with our connect group, teach someone in the way of Christ, encourage someone, or share the good news of Jesus with someone, let us always do it with a pure heart saying, “God, I am delighting to do your will.” That makes God smile.

“The king is coming.” That was what the first century people living in Israel believed. They were anticipating their coming king. The prophets Isaiah and Micah foretold details of his birth. The Psalms described much about him. Jesus is that king. He was born in Bethlehem. He fulfilled the prophecies. He lived, died and rose again. And every moment of his life, he was delighting to do God’s will.

As believers in Jesus, his Spirit lives within us. Let us always be delighting to do his will.