"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
Tonight I went for a walk with my little guy... not a fast-paced one like we normally do, but a nice leisurely one where I could really enjoy myself as I talked to God about different things. I found after awhile that I was repeatedly asking Him for things I desired, whether it was regarding my relationship with Him, my relationship with my husband and son, my weight loss journey, or things that might come in the future. I felt a little guilty about this... almost like I was coming to my Savior with a "honey-do list" rather than with thankfulness and admiration. I confessed this to God, and He immediately gave me the verse that appears above.
Psalm 37:4 isn't new to me; I've read it over and over again for years now. But tonight it held a different meaning. For the first time, my focus was on the first part of the verse rather than the second part. I realized that the first part, "Delight yourself in the Lord," is a directive. It's a command we can actively pursue in obeying everyday of our lives. And the upshot of following this command is God fulfilling the desires of our heart.
So let's take this thing apart for a second. First, how do we delight ourselves in the Lord? I'm sure this looks different for every child of God, but here's what I came up with for me:
Second, is it okay that sometimes "delighting" actually feels more like a duty or obligation? As someone who struggles with this a lot, I certainly think so. As long as we're in these flesh-covered vessels, our first instinct may often be to slack off, or worse, take delight in something other than our Creator. That's why we need Jesus so badly; without Him it's impossible to even have a relationship with God, much less delight in Him. I think in general, we can still delight in something, but work hard to attain it, and then even harder to maintain it. For instance, I had a desire in high school to learn how to play guitar. I was on my way to fulfilling that desire my freshman year of college when I received a guitar as a Christmas present from my parents. It would have been wonderful if I had been one of those prodigies that could just pick up that instrument and immediately strum out numerous chords (not to mention showing off those wicked callouses). But I had to work at it... and for a few years I did, faithfully going through beginner's guitar books, looking up chords, and seeking help from friends who were more musically inclined than I was. Granted, I haven't picked up my guitar in awhile now, but I hope to someday get better at it. The point is, most things we delight in doing also take diligence, patience, and hard work; delighting in the Lord is no different. Even though we love Him and desire to follow after Him with all our hearts, most of the time this will might look more like an effort rather than a natural impulse. So don't worry if this delighting thing isn't the most natural thing ever... it takes time and hard work. Ask God to help you and to give you the stamina to keep at it!
Finally, one of my more burning questions: What if I still don't get the desires of my heart? The verse makes it sound like the whole process is automatic; we delight in the Lord, He gives us what we want. But we know that isn't always the case. Just know that if God says "no" or "wait on that" regarding a particular desire, it doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong. If our actions always dictated their own outcomes, we wouldn't even need to depend on God (and worse, we'd start trying to delight in Him strictly in order to get what we want). Our desires can be pure and selfless, but God may still say "no." That just means He was something better for us that what we are currently desiring in our hearts. Think about it. If God automatically fulfilled every desire we had in our hearts, we would marry the first person we were attracted to. We would go to the first college that looked good to us. We would take that first job we were offered. Now for some people, these things actually worked out this way, but for most of us, God gave us a "no" and instead directed us toward something even better.
We need to align our hearts with His so that His desires become our desires. And what better way to do that than to grow closer to Him by delighting in Him? So why not think and pray more on this delighting thing? May our ultimate motive in delighting in our Savior be to bring glory to His name and to learn how to love Him as He guides us toward the better way.
Tonight I went for a walk with my little guy... not a fast-paced one like we normally do, but a nice leisurely one where I could really enjoy myself as I talked to God about different things. I found after awhile that I was repeatedly asking Him for things I desired, whether it was regarding my relationship with Him, my relationship with my husband and son, my weight loss journey, or things that might come in the future. I felt a little guilty about this... almost like I was coming to my Savior with a "honey-do list" rather than with thankfulness and admiration. I confessed this to God, and He immediately gave me the verse that appears above.
Psalm 37:4 isn't new to me; I've read it over and over again for years now. But tonight it held a different meaning. For the first time, my focus was on the first part of the verse rather than the second part. I realized that the first part, "Delight yourself in the Lord," is a directive. It's a command we can actively pursue in obeying everyday of our lives. And the upshot of following this command is God fulfilling the desires of our heart.
So let's take this thing apart for a second. First, how do we delight ourselves in the Lord? I'm sure this looks different for every child of God, but here's what I came up with for me:
- Searching Him out by reading His word and talking to Him, and being excited about what He's showing me.
- Thanking Him for even the smallest blessings and victories.
- Making Him the first thing on my mind in the morning and the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep at night.
- Praising Him even in the midst of a storm.
Second, is it okay that sometimes "delighting" actually feels more like a duty or obligation? As someone who struggles with this a lot, I certainly think so. As long as we're in these flesh-covered vessels, our first instinct may often be to slack off, or worse, take delight in something other than our Creator. That's why we need Jesus so badly; without Him it's impossible to even have a relationship with God, much less delight in Him. I think in general, we can still delight in something, but work hard to attain it, and then even harder to maintain it. For instance, I had a desire in high school to learn how to play guitar. I was on my way to fulfilling that desire my freshman year of college when I received a guitar as a Christmas present from my parents. It would have been wonderful if I had been one of those prodigies that could just pick up that instrument and immediately strum out numerous chords (not to mention showing off those wicked callouses). But I had to work at it... and for a few years I did, faithfully going through beginner's guitar books, looking up chords, and seeking help from friends who were more musically inclined than I was. Granted, I haven't picked up my guitar in awhile now, but I hope to someday get better at it. The point is, most things we delight in doing also take diligence, patience, and hard work; delighting in the Lord is no different. Even though we love Him and desire to follow after Him with all our hearts, most of the time this will might look more like an effort rather than a natural impulse. So don't worry if this delighting thing isn't the most natural thing ever... it takes time and hard work. Ask God to help you and to give you the stamina to keep at it!
Finally, one of my more burning questions: What if I still don't get the desires of my heart? The verse makes it sound like the whole process is automatic; we delight in the Lord, He gives us what we want. But we know that isn't always the case. Just know that if God says "no" or "wait on that" regarding a particular desire, it doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong. If our actions always dictated their own outcomes, we wouldn't even need to depend on God (and worse, we'd start trying to delight in Him strictly in order to get what we want). Our desires can be pure and selfless, but God may still say "no." That just means He was something better for us that what we are currently desiring in our hearts. Think about it. If God automatically fulfilled every desire we had in our hearts, we would marry the first person we were attracted to. We would go to the first college that looked good to us. We would take that first job we were offered. Now for some people, these things actually worked out this way, but for most of us, God gave us a "no" and instead directed us toward something even better.
We need to align our hearts with His so that His desires become our desires. And what better way to do that than to grow closer to Him by delighting in Him? So why not think and pray more on this delighting thing? May our ultimate motive in delighting in our Savior be to bring glory to His name and to learn how to love Him as He guides us toward the better way.
