I still remember the surprise I had over 20 years ago when I read Zephaniah 3:17 about God saving us, rejoicing over us with gladness, quietening us with His love, and dancing over us with singing. Can you picture God shouting with joy over you? Can you see God dancing exuberantly because of you? Can you imagine God loving you this much?
Imagine the sound of God’s voice! Imagine the song He would be singing! But picture Him dancing! Swinging around and swirling. Twisting and turning. And it’s all because you are His beloved child.
Don’t think that that verse was unusual and that God isn’t like that anywhere else in the Bible because He is. When we are told that Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21) we discover that the word ‘rejoice’ means very much jumping and leaping, or being so glad that one jumps in celebration (Strongs 21 and 242).
And why was Jesus so joyful? He was joyful because God had revealed Himself not to the wise and intelligent ones on earth, but to simple children, us. He was excited and leaping up and down and around and around because God had shown Himself to us.
Can you grasp just how much you are loved by God? If you don’t understand anything else that I am writing, please understand this – God loves you fiercely. He’s jealous over you. He has put His seal on you. You are His and His alone. He WANTS you and He’s marked you.
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.”(Song of Sol. 8:6 NIV).
And what does that seal look like? “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:13-14 NIV).
You have been loved eternally by God. He has placed the seal of the Holy Spirit on you to guarantee that you belong to Him forever, and that is really something for you to shout out in joy and to dance wildly about.