Because He Delighted In Me

¹“He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.” (Psalms 18:19). When we are feeling especially critical of and frustrated in ourselves, we may question the motives and the sanity of a God who could possibly forgive us for all of the terrible things that we have done. The truth is, however well or poorly we understand ourselves, we just don’t see ourselves the way that God sees us. As strange as it may sometimes seem to us, God delights in us. He genuinely gets a kick out of watching us learn and grow. Yeah, sometimes we make the wrong choices, but also sometimes despite the fact that we are incredibly weak and foolish and shortsighted and just overall generally lacking in any kind of awareness of how our actions are going to affect either our future selves or anyone else, somehow we still often choose to do the right thing. Even when we are hurt or tired or stressed out or all three, we still sometimes choose to look beyond our own pains and concerns and show genuine love and service for our brothers and sisters. God knows how big of a deal this is. In fact, He knows much better than we do how miraculous it is when we find the willpower to do the right thing when we’ve got so many handicaps stacked against us. And seeing us still choose to trust Him after all we’ve been through delights Him. Yes, God saves us because He is loving and compassionate and supremely benevolent. But also, God just likes having us around and that’s as good a reason as any for Him to save us.