Devotion 1:

“The Lord your God 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”

Zephaniah 3:17

I am a goof ball with the horses. They make me laugh all the time. I forget how cold the barn is in winter when they come in for breakfast. I sing the songs on the radio to them, I talk to them and pray over them. They make my heart laugh with their antics. They are all so individual. Wyatt waits patiently for his breakfast while Bubba neighs and fusses until his bucket is filled. Poncho puts his ears back ,which is not endearing but understandable, since he had to fight for each meal at another home, it seems.

Each horse makes himself very dear to me by who he is. If you have your own horse, you know whether he like root beer barrels or sugar cubes. Abbie LOVES strawberry tops. Grooming them you find each horses particular spot where they love to be rubbed, and it makes them make funny faces in delight. Each horse has its own bad habits too. Though, I rarely focus on them except to correct them and move on.

God is a lot like this with us. Who we are makes his heart sing, he delights and rejoices over us! Zephaniah tells us so. He isn't waiting for us to become show perfect to love and enjoy us. He loves us as we are, however we are right now. He knows what you enjoy and each and every delightful and awful thing about you.

He won't leave our bad habits but will work on them, just as we do our horses, but that does not interfere with his love and adoration for us right now. His focus isn't on our negatives, he won't leave them alone but he won't dwell on them either. When we are out there being ourselves, he delights in his creation, just as we adore our horses whether they come in muddy or covered in burrdocks or amazingly, still beautiful from the last grooming.. But my heart sings at the sight of them muddy or knotted, just as God does with us when we fail or succeed. Just for being you, he finds you delightful.

The verse says He quiets us with his love. When one of the horses is nervous, I love to hold their lead and talk to them. Comforting them with my voice and touch is one way I can show my love and concern. When he starts on the trail, he listens to my voice and touch and guidance to know he is still being led. God works the same way with us. He quiets us. The word brings out such calm and relaxed feelings. He wont leave us, and he guides us through the scary places or situations.

This is the amazing thing about our God, His love and delight frees us to choose him and serve him out of delight too, not just a rule.. . Horses love to serve a good master well and his delight can be the horses reward. This is how we can return our love to him who loves us first.