Promises to Fulfill Our Desires
What is your heart’s desire?
Verse of the Day
‘Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.’
Today’s Devotional
I need to be honest from the start and say that this promise of God needs to be handled delicately. My human brian reads verses like this and thinks, “Excellent. I want ______, so which ‘God boxes’ do I need to check to get what I want?”
God is not a vending machine. There is not a certain amount or type of prayers we can recite to magically receive blessings from God. That’s not how God works. God is all about the heart. He wants us to understand His heart for us, and He wants us to fall madly in love with Him. He wants us to choose to love Him. It’s the highest and best use of our free will.
Yesterday I mentioned that some of the promises of God are conditional. Today’s promise, that He will give us our heart’s desires, is no different. The condition or requirement here is that we take delight in the Lord. But what does that mean?
First, I’m going to look for context clues in the rest of this chapter of Psalms 37 to see if I can find any answers. Perhaps delighting in the Lord means:
- Choosing not to worry. (This one is listed twice. And it’s easier said than done.)
- Choosing not to envy others.
- Choosing to place your trust in God. (This one is listed three times.)
- Doing good. (Listed twice.)
- Committing every action I take to God.
- Being still in God’s presence.
- Waiting patiently for God to act.
- Deciding to stop being angry.
- Not losing your temper.
- Allowing God to take care of you.
- Taking whatever steps God directs you to take.
- Giving good counsel, teaching others right from wrong.
- Putting your hope in God.
- Finding shelter in God.
In other research about what it looks like to delight in the Lord, one writer mentioned a deliberate redirection of one’s emotions. It gave the example of Paul and Silas choosing to sing and praise while they were in prison. Another suggested that we seek our happiness from God, that our time with Him and in His presence should cause us joy. Still another mentioned that we cannot delight in the Lord without considerable effort. We must make it our intention. Another way to delight in God is to actively practice gratitude to God, for God, for the works of His hands, for His love. We must decide that our happiness is not derived from earthly things and place our happiness and joy in God’s hands.
I like the thought that taking delight in God requires effort. Because then there is something I can do. There are ways that I can participate. Finding delight in God doesn’t just happen. And now that I know that, I can set about following the suggested steps.
Once I’ve learned to delight in the Lord, THEN He gives me the desires of my heart. And my guess is that as I have learned to delight in God, my desires have probably changed somewhat. The things I long for will probably align with God’s will for my life. The things that He longs to give me are the things that will give me the most joy. And maybe for me to desire those things, I first have to go through this process.
Then there are the little things that God can bless us with. The things that are unique to each one of us. Like getting to go on a sailboat (when that has been a dream). Like getting to travel (when that is something we enjoy). Like our children or grandchildren coming to visit. Like learning a new hobby. Like making a new friend. Like finding a group of like-minded people that become your tribe. This list could go on and on, but I think you get the point. God longs to bless us with these things. But if we don’t learn to delight in God first, these secondary things might become primary. They might become idols. They might distract us from our One True Love.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you delight in God today?
What steps do you need to take to learn to delight in God?
How can delighting in God be an intentional choice and series of actions for you?
What are the desires of your heart?