Like many of you, I am constantly thinking of my future, constantly thinking how will I know if I’m doing God’s will in my life? How do I know if I have God-honouring desires?
That’s when I turn to Psalm 37… verse 4 especially…
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Well when I was younger, I always assumed that verse meant, that if I delight and draw near to God, He will give me whatever my heart desires… GREAT I thought! All I have to do is get close to God and bam, He’s going to give me all that my heart desires! How often do we as Christian young women treat God like a genie and think “if I draw close to God, if I act like a good Christian, God is going to grant all my wishes because I deserve that right?” … I know I used to have a mindset like that.
So it came as a surprise to me one day when I found out what this awesome verse actually meant! When we delight in God- spending time with God in His Word, in prayer, praising, worshipping and glorifying Him -with the right attitude- then God will place HIS desires in our heart!
What a blessing to know that when we truly delight in God, He’s the one who places His desires in our hearts…
And why is this a good thing? One of the reasons why this is so great is because of what we read in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Our hearts are still affected by sin. Satan loves to tempt us, confuse our hearts and place the wrong desires in our hearts. One thing to remember about Satan is that he makes sin look desirable! The wrong desires he tempts us to have don’t look like sin on the outside, they may seem to be good but that is exactly what Satan wants you to think. That’s why we have to delight in God-rely on Him, trust in Him, ask Him for wisdom, seek His Word for counsel and seek godly counsel.
God also gives us some other ways to delight in Him in the next few verses of Psalm 37…
- Commit your way to the Lord
- Trust in Him
- Patiently wait for Him
- Don’t fret or worry because of others who seem to be prospering
We serve the Almighty, All-Knowing God, what a blessing and a privilege to know that He is the One that’s in control and can make His desires known in our hearts!
What are your favorite verses to turn to when you want to know or are worried about the future?
Who else just loves to read the Psalms?
What desires are in your heart and mind at the moment that you want to seek wisdom for?
Guest Blogger: Ruth Finlay from the great country of Australia!
