A Journey Into Divine LoveSample

He Rejoices in Your Love

How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are! —Song 4:1

Some people think the primary way God grows us in Him is by condemning us, but that is not true. The primary way God brings us into maturity is by cherishing us! I’m grateful for the Lord’s discipline, but I’m forever thankful that the main way He brings my character and will into line with His is by lavishly loving me.

Jesus affirmed Peter and called him “the rock,” even though He knew Peter would deny Him very soon. Peter was about to fail Him massively, and yet Jesus defined Peter by his best characteristics, not his biggest blunders. Even in your worst moments, you are a child of God whom Jesus purchased with His own blood. Your identity has been settled in heaven and on earth forever. Hallelujah! Messiah Jesus treats you as He did Peter by calling out the budding virtues in your life. He knows we aren’t done “cooking” yet. Nobody is where we need to be. Yeshua looks ahead to our fullest potential and interacts with us now based on that reality. It gives Him great joy to teach us that way.

Many of us think of Jesus as somehow too holy to share in or be moved by our human experience. However, consider that John 1:14 says the Word of God “became flesh, and dwelt among us.” We sometimes tend to think of Father God as distant and separate from our lived experience. We think of Him as our provider, our protector, our Creator, but we don’t often imagine Him being moved or receiving pleasure from our love for Him. But the truth is our God humbly clothed Himself in humanity and identifies with us to such a degree that He feels what we feel. The Son of God gets excited over His bride’s love for Him.

God said to Israel in Isaiah 62:5, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.” In Isaiah 65:19, He said, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” While He is eternally complete and lacks nothing, somehow, He has arranged things so that we can add to His pleasure.

Some people think that if God could get joy out of our loving Him, it would somehow make Him “less than.” But the opposite is true. God is so secure and complete in Himself that with no loss of any kind, He can put Himself in a position to be touched by us.

The Bible says Jesus keeps track of every single act of love we perform (Matt. 10:42). Every time you get up early in the morning to spend time with Him, it moves His heart. Every time you are gracious when someone is mean to you, it means something to Him. Every time you let someone go in front of you in traffic in order to abide in Him, He delights. Every time you breathe a prayer for a loved one—or for an enemy— Jesus knows it, feels it, and rejoices in it.