"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.." Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
I would tell myself, "okay, my desires are to have this guy, be married, have a good job etc....so if I follow God then he will give me these things.." Not selfish at all right? It's scripture...
Well as the years have went on and God has continually knocked at my door, through bold people in my life that shared hard truths with me, I have come to see this verse differently. I asked myself what are truly my desires:
1. I desire to be loved, don't we all? I desire to have someone that cares so much for me that they would be willing to die for me to just be able to live one more day in their place.
2. I desire to be comforted. I am a baby sometimes and I want someone I can run to and them tell me that it will be okay.
3. I desire to be accepted. I want to be liked by someone that has a higher place in society than me and having their acceptance will satisfy some of my deepest desires in the world. Don't play, you want to be accepted too.
4. I desire to be taken care of and forgiven. I make some dumb choices sometimes. I want to have someone that will forgive me and beg me to run to them even when I make the same bad decision over and over again.
These are only a few of the things I came up with. When I look at these heart desires (compared to the outside desires) I see God's humor in it all. He is like "HELLLLLOOOOOOOOO, I have been here the whole time...Your the one running to so many other things to try and have these desires filled...how's that going?"
Love- "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Comfort- "God is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion" Psalm 116: 8
Acceptance- "...and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." John 6:37
Forgiven- "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us.." 1John1:9
But the thing is, the verse does not say "I will give you the desires of your heart and then you will delight in me..." That would make our delight in God based on what he gives us. That's even more selfish than before (hint our selfishness here). But instead the verse says "Take delight in me...." In HIM! Not in his wonderful gifts, in his promises, or in his forgiveness but just Him and who he is for who he is, God.
I have once been asked would I be happy in heaven if Jesus wasn't there? My first reaction was, no of course not. But would I? Golden streets, no tears or sadness, all Joy?
We are so quick to use God for our good, happiness, comfort, and to make everything go back to normal or just be 'okay' again. I mean of course I want to be happy, don't get me wrong but...
That's not worship to God.
Worship is seeing everything around you as negative, dragging, discouraging, and what seems like hopeless feeling alone...and still saying "Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 106: 1
Why do you think Christians in the Bible had so many trails? So they can be seen as victorious when they overcame them--no--it's so the Power of God can shine through all the more.
If I ever get to that point in my life I hope God shows me enough love to allow my heart to praise him even if my emotions and situations say life sucks, but my lips can say God is good and he is eternal, therefore I will praise him.
Even early on in my walk with God I see Psalm 37 :4 differently each year. That's the funny thing about God. He does not leave us in our sin- he promises to change and sanctify our hearts. So when he says that he will give me the desires of my heart, he also means that my desires will become more like his desires as time goes on (Romans 6:17-18). I will begin to hate the things he hates and love the things he loves. Then how easy is is for him to satisfy my desires if they are his own?
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
Lord, my heart is so prone to wander away from you. Would you melt my heart of stone and allow me to love the things you love and obey you out of a deep love for you!
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