Exceeding Sweet Delight

By Makenzie Allen –

“They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on Him—that she expects after a while to be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always.” Jonathan Edwards

This story was titled “Sarah Pierrepont”, and it is believed that Jonathan Edwards wrote it as letter to his future wife whom he had never met. It goes on to say that Sarah could not be persuaded to do anything wrong or sinful because of the sweetness in her mind.

Meditating on God and being filled with the delight of Him deteriorates the strength of the flesh. In a culture where immorality is pushed, our thinking can easily become polluted with all kinds of evil. I’ve been noticing the grip Satan has on the media especially.

If we, as children of God, desire to honor Him in the decisions we make, we must remove the earthly lies from our thoughts and replace them with the loveliness of God and His word. The earth has fallen into sin, but the King is risen!

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” John 15:19 (KJV).

So although it can sound convincing to believers that we should act like the world in order to reach the lost, it is far from what God’s word says. We are expected to have the exceeding sweet delight that Sarah Pierrepont had for our King, not the corrupt longing for sinful deeds. When we learn to fill our mind with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, we then naturally make decisions that honor and glorify God, and that is what reaches the lost.

They say there is a body of believers throughout the world who are beloved of that Great Being who made and rules the world. And one day, they shall be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven being assured that the God of the universe loves them all too well to let them remain at a distance from Him always. Until that anticipated day, this body is needed here, on earth, to embrace the lost souls still searching for exceeding sweet delight.