What is Delight?

i have been thinking a lot about my first post on here the last few days, my desire to delight in the little things of life.  but then i started thinking about what it means to delight - what is delight? so i started doing some digging....

webster's dictionary defines delight as "a high degree of gratification, joy, something that give great pleasure." ok... gratification, joy, pleasure.  what do those words mean? webster's says that gratification is "a source of satisfaction or pleasure," there's pleasure again.  joy is defined as "to experience great pleasure or delight, rejoice" - now there is pleasure and delight! and pleasure is defined as "a source of delight or joy."  ok,, so now i have three words with very similar meanings.  but i keep digging because webster's dictionary is not my authority for life.  i went to the word of God and looked up delight. 

in my translation (ESV) delight is used 77 times.  places we're all probably familiar with -

psalm 1:1-2 - "blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." 

and psalm 37:4 - "delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." 

in these contexts the psalmist is calling the reader to find joy and delight in the Lord.  Strongs concordance defines delight as "rejoice, glad, joyful, joy."  JOY! we are to have joy when we delight.  joy means "rejoice, be exeeding glad, be glad, greatly rejoice." i am to be glad when i delight.  i am to be glad in all the small details of life.  and not because all of the small details of life make me glad but because as a believer i am told to! 

philippians 4:4 says, "rejoice in the Lord always, again i will say rejoice!" 

and 1 thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

this is why i am told to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances - because it is the will of God in Christ Jesus for ME!  this is amazing friends, my mind has been reeling for days over this... the will of God for me is to be thankful in all circumstances and to rejoice in everything!

i delight when i have joy, but i can only have joy when i am truly thankful...  i think this is one of the roots of what the Lord is teaching me about delight - i need to be more thankful! wow... what a sobering thought to realize i am not as thankful as i should be... not as thankful as God is calling me to be - in ALL things!  ok, but that's for another post. for now, though, i know what i need - i need thankfulness.  Lord, help me to be a thankful woman....

"and be thankful. let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - colossians 3:15-17