It’s important that we work daily to define our understanding of Christ, His Kingdom, His salvation, and His calling for our lives. The better we define such matters, the clearer will become our vision of the Lord and His glory, and this will help us want to depend on Him more fully.

Depending on the Lord involves desiring Him above all else, denying everything in our lives that keeps us from moving toward Him and His Kingdom, determining a course for each day and all the time and activities of our lives, and continually detoxing from any sin that may have found a way into our souls.

As we thus define our faith more clearly and depend on the Lord more consistently, we can expect to demonstrate His power in words and deeds of love for God and our neighbors.

Thus, the spiritual life is a life of looking to, serving, and obeying our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. And you can be sure of this: This way of life, the spiritual life, is the way of true joy and delight.

Delighting in the Lord

Jesus promised full and abundant life to all who follow Him (Jn. 10.10). In His presence we may know fullness of joy and holy pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16.11). As we experience this true spiritual life more completely, we will rejoice to say with the Apostle Paul, “For me to live is Christ!” (Phil. 1.21). Following Jesus is demanding, difficult, and draining at times; but following Him leads to the true delight every person earnestly desires in life.

The psalmist promises that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart. Don’t miss the beauty of this simple word of promise. First, we must know, see, fear, adore, and clearly perceive the Lord. We must define our goal and objective in life as the “one thing” David and Paul desired above all else – life with and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we can delight in Him by all the ways He shows us how to depend on Him. And living this way has a self-reinforcing dynamic to it. The more we delight in the Lord by desiring Him, denying sinful ways, determining to walk in His steps, and detoxing from all sins, the more we know the delight He has created us to know. And guess what: The more we delight in this Lord in this way, the more we desire Him in our hearts. And when we desire Him in our hearts the way He intends we should, then He will give us those desires, increasing our vision of the Lord, our dependence on Him, and our ability to demonstrate the life-transforming reality of the spiritual life.

So, how’s it going?

What a privilege and blessing to be a people called to such a life in Jesus Christ!

Is this your experience as a believer? Do you delight in the Lord in this way, so that you desire Him more and more, and He meets your desires by giving more of Himself to you day by day?

This is what God has planned for you, and nothing in this life even remotely compares to the utter and complete delight of living in Jesus Christ.

Make sure you have defined your Christian life in line with God’s definition. Then discipline your heart to love the Lord, the vision of Whose glory and power and goodness and beauty is growing clearer to you every day. Take up the disciplines of depending on the Lord, so that you demonstrate the resurrection life of Jesus more consistently every day.

Then rest back in the arms of our Savior and King, and delight in the full and abundant life – the spiritual life – for which He lived, died, rose again, and reigns in glory.

Next steps

Make a copy of the PDF of this study for several of your friends. Challenge them to read through it, work through the questions for reflection or discussion, and meet together in a week or so to discuss what they’ve learned.

Additional Resources

Download this week’s study, Dynamics of the Spirtual Life.

Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.

The spiritual life begins and ends in the vision of Christ. T. M.’s book, Be Thou My Vision, provides a helpful series of meditations on the Lord in glory. It’s available by clicking here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.