Rejoice Over ME????

I was getting ready for church this morning. I had Pandora pulled up on my laptop listening to worship music. I was trying to get my heart ready for church. I try to get my mind off of myself and onto God and others. I don't want to go to church because I have to. I also don't want to go to church for what I am going to get out of it. Don't get me wrong - I get alot out of church. It is always a blessing - every time without fail. But I want to be a blessing to God when I go. I want my worship to be real and an acceptable offering to Him - a sacrifice of praise that I lay on the altar. I also want God to be able to use me in other people's lives while I am there. Most of the people I see at church, I don't see during the week. Sometimes because they only come on Sunday mornings, but also because I am not always there on Wednesday nights. My body makes that call sometimes. I always pray about it - God knows how I feel. If He says "Rest" then I rest. If He says "Go", then I go. So on Sunday mornings, I prepare my heart, I ask God to take the throne and work through me however He wants. I pray that every person I come in contact with, God will work through me to give them exactly what they need from Him at that moment. Sometimes it is prayer, a word of encouragement, a hug, a smile, a witness, an example, even a work of rebuke (I really don't enjoy those). I don't want those precious few hours to be wasted.

So as I am listening to the music, I heard a phrase. I am not sure if it was in the song or just my mind. I stopped and listened to the song and didn't hear it again. I don't even remember exactly how it was worded, but something to the effect of God rejoicing over me with singing..... I had heard that before. I looked until time to leave for church, looked until the kids got to my class, looked until time for the service to start, and them came home and pulled all my Bibles out and looked some more. I FOUND IT!! Zephaniah 3:17 "The LORD your God is with you; the mighty One will save you. He will rejoice over you. You will rest in His love; He will sing and be joyful about you." The last line in the NKJV says "He will rejoice over you with singing." Read that again and let it sink in for a few minutes. There is verse after verse telling us to rejoice in Him, to sing to Him and about Him, to praise Him, and on and on. But this verse says that He sings over me. Yes, I am in tears at this point. You know I have to picture things in my mind to get the full effect. I picture God, the God of the universe, Creator, Redeemer, Eternal King.....rejoicing over me - sinful, selfish, hell-deserving, insignificant worm - with singing. Can you picture that? Oh, what love that a holy God would rejoice over me. And yet, we still hold back part of ourselves for our own selfish purposes. He loves us so much that not only did He send His Son to die for us to reconcile us to Himself and to save us from hell, but He wants to have a daily, intimate relationship with us. He wants to use us for His kingdom work. And yet we still live our lives our way. That blows my mind.

Precious Father, this is one of the most humbling verses I have ever read. You rejoice over me with singing. I don't deserve that at all. Thank you that I don't have to deserve it and never could. Jesus in me deserves it. He is what you see when you look at me. When I am self-centered and start to do things my way, remind me of this verse. Draw my attention back to You, Your mercy, and Your grace. I love You!