Delighting in my desires

“Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4As I have been wrestling through a few desires that are on my heart, this verse has been echoing in my heart over the past couple of weeks.  I never want to desire something that is not from the Lord.  I don’t want my desires to be my own, but desires that have come directly from my Father’s heart to mine.  Which is why I have been wrestling with these desires.  Every day I pray and ask the Lord to take away the desire and replace it with a new vision or passion.  But the desires remain, and grow deeper.

This verse can be slightly controversial.  What it is saying is that God will in fact give us the desires of our heart… IF we take delight in Him.  I think we like to take this verse and claim that He will give us our desires, but we throw to the wayside the most important part of this verse; we MUST take delight in our Lord.  It is a command, not a suggestion.  In my experience, it’s a good idea to take delight in our Lord no matter if He gives us the desires of our hearts or not.  Nevertheless, in His grace and love He wants and truly desires to give us the desires of OUR hearts.

So, this is where I have landed.  My heart delights in my Lord; I love Him with everything in me and I want nothing more or less than what He wants.  So if my heart is delighting in Him and my desires are pure, then He will give me the desires of my heart.  The first part of the verse is a command, but the latter part is a promise.

So even when the desires don’t look like they are being fulfilled, I must hold on to His promise, do my part in delighting in Him, and wait until He perfectly meets the desires of my heart.  I trust that in my delighting He has put those desires in my heart so that I can wait expectantly for Him to meet them in order to bring greater glory to His name.

-Written by Cara Bowen