\n<\/p>\n
Be happy in the Lord also,
\nAnd he will fulfill the desires of your heart.
\nDedicate your path to the Lord, trust in Him also,
\nAnd he will accomplish it.
\n(Psalm 37:4,5)<\/p>\n
Among the many good things we should be able to say about God, one of the things we should be able to say about God is that He is delightful to us. He is the source of all that most deeply moves us. \u201cGod is so wonderful, so perfect and completely delightful, that He, without anything else but Himself, can meet and satisfy the deepest demands of our total nature, as mysterious and deep as nature is\u201d (A.W. Tozer).<\/p>\n
If we are instructed to rejoice in God, it means that we can choose to do so. It is in our power to determine the objects of our delight (Philippians 4:8), and if we want to, we can choose to delight in God. That our will is included in our joy should tell us that \u201cjoy,\u201d at least in relation to God, is more than an emotional feeling. This is an established belief regarding the transcendence of God. Sometimes this conviction will be accompanied by moods and emotions that will be “pleasant”, but sometimes it will not. In any case, we must be determined that our minds will appreciate God for all that He is, and give Him the priority He deserves in our thinking and action. The ultimate test of whether we are happy in God is not how we feel, but how we feel. Accept<\/em> It should be accepted as it is.<\/p>\n That said, we should also not hesitate to say that it is good to desire God in an emotional way. Our values \u200b\u200bshould be such that our mind comes to God not with reluctance but with joy and eagerness. Certainly when Jesus said, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind\u201d (Matthew 22:37), He intended for us to love God more than our mind and our will. Didn’t he also mean that our hearts should be thrilled at the thought of God?<\/p>\n This love is possible only when we increase our appreciation of the goodness of God’s holy character. As long as our happiness depends on it conforming to our desires, that happiness will be short-lived. We must learn to love the truth about God.<\/p>\n \u201cTrue love of God must begin with joy in His holiness\u201d (Jonathan Edwards).<\/p>\n