The Power Of Being Enraptured

Something I have been thinking on lately is the power of being enraptured. That is, the power of delight, joy, pleasure, wonder, and awe… all tied up together.

Growing up in church and hearing and seeing so many people struggling with so many things it makes you think about how people battle those things. Many people are determined and disciplined. Both of which are good things. Others continually pray and quote or memorize scripture… both of which are most excellent things. Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man cleanse His way? By taking heed according to Your word.”

What I have noticed though is that there is so much more power in delighting in the Lord and being enraptured in the Lord. Surely this also is a mercy from the Lord, just as prayer is and just as His word is. Also, I think they coincide… that is, knowing His word, communing with Him, and delighting in Him… and in that harmony there is incredible power against the flesh.

So now it leaves me asking, how? How do I, how do we get swept up in God such that our delighting, our pleasure, and our duty make light and easy work of defeating sin and the flesh? It is a gift from God. I do believe that discipline puts one in line to receive it. Discipline in reading God’s Word, discipline in prayer, discipline in edification of reading, writing, listening, and learning (that is the discipline of our environment – what do we watch, read, and listen to). Garbage in, garbage out, God within, God without. God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, he will also reap.

So I think the discipline comes first. I know that I have by no means “attained”, but I am on a journey and undergoing a process. I can see that as God is changing me, as He is setting me apart, as He is sanctifying me, that, the power of me being, not only in awe of who He is, but also delighting in Him and being swept up in Him (I would want to be as much as I can at all times) is so great in defeating the allure of anything that is not right. The allure of temptations is continually there and even though it trips us up many times, it is far easier to see sin for the destruction that it truly is, or as I like to think of it, the “fake food” that it is, especially when you are savoring the “gourmet delights” of God.