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

Scripture reading: Zephaniah 3; Luke 15:10

When Zephaniah prophesied, Judah was doing fairly well. However, Zephaniah said God was going to punish them and the nations around them because His people were not worshipping the One True God the way they were called to do. Yet at the end of this short book, Zephaniah makes another prediction. God would give them what they needed so that many would be strong in the Lord and so be able to be what God had called them to be: a holy mountain and a salt and light to the world. He would do this by saving them Himself, by conquering their greatest enemies: sin, Satan and death. We know that this was done by Jesus Christ. In saving His people in this way, God showed He greatly delights in His people. He promised that He would quiet them with His love and rejoice over them with singing.

The Old Testament people of Zephaniah’s time were called to believe that this would be their future. And in that future, they would be equipped to God’s calling for them to be a light to the world and the means by which God would rescue the lame and gather people from all over the world. We live on the other side of Christ’s great victory on the cross. We are called to believe and see that Jesus has saved us, that He delights in us and is quieting us with His love so that we can rejoice in Him and be witnesses to those around us of our great and gracious God.

Suggestions for prayer

Pray that you would believe Jesus has saved you and now God does delight in you and will quiet you in His love. Also, that you would believe that He is rejoicing over you with singing so that you can be what God has called you to be in this fallen world, calling others to repentance and joy.

This daily devotional is available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional. Rev. Richard Bultjes is pastor at a church plant in Niagara Falls, Ontario, called River of Life.