He Sings Over Me
This week’s guest post comes to us from
Maria Gibilisco
The Lord your God is with you, The Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” — Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
It was 2012, everything in my life that could be shaken was being rocked with a ferocity that threatened to break me. I was struggling to get out of an abusive marriage, hunting for a job that would support me and 3 children while looking for a home for us. The marriage had taken its toll on me. Unimaginable, relentless attacks on my womanhood had left me feeling like a shell of a person. Thoughts that I was a complete failure constantly plagued my head and heart. My confidence had been stripped to nothing which made all tasks related to building a new life seem insurmountable.
Feeling completely unlovable and dogged by constant fear, I was terrified that the evil, destructive messages I had been hearing about myself for years were true. Fears that I would be incapable of forging forward with any success in building a new life for my children and I were palpable. It was then that God used a friend who gave me a card with the above verse written in it. Zephaniah 3:17 instantly became a significant and lasting source of encouragement to me.
“The Lord your God is with you, The Mighty one who saves.” It was a comfort beyond description that the Lord, creator of all things, was WITH…me. The Mighty One who saves was with ME. I wasn’t alone. I didn’t need to be afraid. The Mighty King of the universe is ABLE, I didn’t need to be. I belonged to Him and He would save and provide for me and my girls (and He did)…this belief began healing me.
“He will take great delight in you” WOW!! I didn’t understand why He would! Webster’s Dictionary defines being delighted as being “highly pleased.” I had no idea why a holy and perfect God would take delight in me. For so many years of my life I was literally programmed to believe that I wasn’t enough. I was literally told that if I could be more like sister so and so, or do things this way instead of that, be more submissive, be more feminine, be godlier, prettier, skinnier — that maybe then I would be enough, worthy of love, worthy of fidelity, worthy of a home that wasn’t a constant battle ground. That’s why this verse struck me so hard.
Please allow me a moment to take you on a little journey. Close your eyes and picture the vast expanse of the mountains…the endless expanse of the Universe (which He holds in the palm of His hand), see the mighty, life-filled oceans…are you there? Once you see that, think of the One who created all of that. Now see Him being delighted - in YOU. What does the face of delight look like? Can you see gentle loving eyes, a smile, maybe feel a warm hug?
The King of the universe is DELIGHTED in me…DELIGHTED IN YOU! I began to think maybe I was lovable. Maybe all those horrible things that happened to me don’t get to define me. “In His love he will no longer rebuke you, but rejoice over you with singing.” The NKJV says this part of the verse this way, “He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” This part blew my mind. I needed to be “quieted in His love” because life was terrifying! I imagined being tucked into His enormous arms and held tight and safe while He sang over me…almost like a baby being soothed in the warm embrace of a loving parent.
I don’t know about you, but this part changed my life, thinking about the all-powerful, omniscient God of the universe singing over me. It challenged the lies I believed about myself. I began to pray and ask the Father to help me allow Him to be the one to define who I am. He is the One who sacrificed EVERYTHING so I could be saved. He is the one who gets to say who I am. He is the One who says who YOU are.
Allow me to conclude with this definition of who we are:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
—1 Peter 2:9
Be blessed Queens!
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