Isaiah 62:4 (NLT)

Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the LORD delights in you and will claim you as his bride.

Through His Eyes you are delighted in. One of life’s most difficult experiences is being rejected. There are an endless amount of ways we can feel rejected such as; an argument with a friend or family member, separation or divorce, or being fired from a job, just to name a few. We all have a desire to be wanted and loved. We were created with that desire. God made us for relationships, to be connected with other people. When we connect we begin to learn about ourselves, we can find our purpose, and we can feel fulfilled. 

The ultimate connection that has a lasting effect on us and can never be destroyed is with God. God addresses our feelings of rejection in this verse. How many of us can relate to the names, “Forsaken City”, or “Desolate Land?” I know I can. It is easy to dwell on that and lose hope and purpose in life. It’s easy to think of all of the things that could have been done differently. When we take on a name we tend to identify with the characteristics of that name. We “become” the name. If your name is “Forsaken City” you take on the character of that name. It is not “My name is Forsaken City”, it becomes “I AM Forsaken City.” So many negative emotions are associated with being forsaken. When I think about something being forsaken, I think that it was abandoned because it wasn’t good enough. Can you imagine feeling that way? It is an awful place to find yourself.

God says, “No longer!” God wants us to know that He delights in us. I looked up the word delight in Webster’s 1828 dictionary. You will be surprised about what this word really means and the strength of the word as well. Here is what Webster says delight means, “To affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy;” The verse says, “..the Lord delights in you.” With the definition of delight God is telling us that we cause him to feel great pleasure, we highly please him, and we give him high satisfaction and joy. Can you even imagine that? We cause God to feel great pleasure! Dwell on that for a minute. You are not rejected, forsaken, or deserted. God delights in you! Believe in this, live in this, your new name is, “The City of God’s Delight!”