CAUSING GOD TO SMILE

I come to a summit meeting with God not primarily to ask for my needs and wants but to please Him. “The Lord takes pleasure in His people” (Psalm 149:4). When I communicate with Him I fulfill the purpose for which He created man. 

The Scripture informs me that God is spirit and He created mankind in His image. I don't understand the full implications of that but somehow God also experiences emotions: love, anger, satisfaction, disappointment, joy, etc. I understand this to be anthropopathy—ascribing human attributes, passions, or feelings to a being or thing not human, esp. to a deity. I find this expressed throughout Scripture.

So I may say that God experiences pleasure! Jesus was aware that He pleased His Father and said that He always did the things that were pleasing to Him. God the Father in turn declared that He was well-pleased with His son. God spoke prophetically about Jesus through Isaiah in chapter 8:29, “My chosen one in whom My soul delights.” A man's ways can be pleasing to the Lord, (Proverbs 16:7) and “The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” I find it incredible that God actually enjoys us, and that by praying I make Him happy.

Zephaniah 3:17 reinforces that conclusion: "The Lord is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing!"

But does God “smile”? The Living Bible paraphrases Psalm 4:6, “Lift up (the light of your countenance) beam, smile upon us, O Lord.” The blessing in Numbers 6:25 echoes “lift up Your countenance” and asks “God's face to shine upon us.” That sounds like smiling to me. When I respond in obedience to Him and say Yes, Lord, I cause God to smile at me. When I come to a summit meeting with Him and pray in faith, I surely make God smile. I put myself in the right position to receive God's favor. In turn, I am to “Delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

That's what summit meetings with God are all about. God can't move on me, in me, or through me in power until I move into His presence. To enter into His presence I simply walk into it in my spirit. I am to take the initiative and draw near to Him and He will draw near to me. The Scriptures tell me that whenever I am in God's presence there is fulness of joy, pleasures forevermore, and all my springs of joy are in Him. 

A worship chorus echoes that thought:

“Take joy, my King, in what You hear

May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.”