"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4
I have heard this verse a lot lately for various reasons and it made me think. Thinking can be a dangerous thing for me. It either leads to vigorous journaling or an attempt to start my blog back up. I guess it was the latter this time. Hopefully this won't be a one time deal and I will post more often. Back to the verse.
This verse is probably one of the most favorite verses of Christians. It gives us hope. But I think that sometimes it gives us the wrong hope. For most of us, it gives us hope that if we love the Lord and "delight" ourselves in Him that we will get whatever we want. Our dreams of perfect career, family, love, etc. can finally come true if we just find our joy in the Lord. It seems so simple, yet difficult at the same time. But in the end it is completely worth it, right?
But have you ever thought about how this verse could be less about God showering us with blessings, and more about His glory being shown in our lives? I know this is kind of convicting. It is for me now, and it was the first time I thought of it this way.
God tells us to take delight in Him. What does this mean? Well, to me this means that all of our joy comes from the Lord and from serving Him. The more and more I discover God's character and how to find my joy in Him, the more I delight in Him. But also my world begins to revolve around Him. If we are delighting ourselves in the Lord, then our lives will revolve around Christ.
But then God says that He will give us the desires of our heart. If we are delighting ourselves in the Lord, what are the desires of our heart? I think that the blessings we once dreamed about like the perfect career, family, love, etc. are so tiny. They are selfish and all about us. If our focus is Christ, these things don't matter. The only thing we thirst for is Christ. We only want to bring Him glory in all that we do. The desire to find a person to love or work the best job out there is no longer a desire, but a distant thought. Our new found desire is Christ, and things of Christ.
So what are your desires? Are they glorifying to God, or to yourself? Are they something that you want or something that God wants? If your desires are of God and you are delighting yourself in Him, then He absolutely wants to give you those desires.
This is just a little food for thought. I know this is convicting for me, so I hope it helps you as well. And hopefully there will be more blogs to come.
Ellen Nugent
Proverbs 3:5-6
