"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 I was thinking back on this verse that has become so precious to me over the years. I think it is interesting how we view a verse differently sometimes with time and perspective. The Word doesn't change - but my understanding of it certainly does!
The first time I remember reading this verse was my junior year in high school when I really started to read the Word for myself. It caught my attention immediately! Wow - God will give me the desires of my heart! My life had just taken such a dramatic turn - that I was seeing this fulfilled in very dramatic ways! I was delighting in the Lord and life was good.
My freshmen year in college, I hit some major bumps in the road. It was an adjustment being away from home and my friendships and other relationships were in the process of change. It was an unsettling time in many ways, and although I loved college, I found myself pretty unhappy with some of the relationship changes that had taken place. I thought about this verse a lot and just didn't understand why God was not giving me the desires of my heart. I felt like I was delighting myself in the Lord and maybe He just wasn't doing his part (a little naive :-))
I graduated from college, got married, had two children and moved to New York. So - let's fast forward about 8 years. One day, I was just thinking about this verse. It was still one of my favorites and yet I had still been puzzled by it. Like a lightning bolt - it hit me and all made sense.
Back in college, God has not given me specifically what I wanted - what I perceived as the desires of my heart. What He told me that day in New York was that I needed to trust Him with the details. When I really thought about it - the desires of my heart at that time were to have a husband that loved me more than any other person in the world, a loving marriage, children, a home, family, ministry, friendships and JOY. As I looked back over the last 10 or so years that I had been wondering about this verse, I realized that the Lord had fulfilled every one of those desires. They just didn't all look exactly like I had pictured them! They were actually much, much more.
No matter how much we mature or grow - we can never have the perspective, insight and foresight of our Heavenly Father. I have noticed that as I grow in my faith and trust in Him, my desires align much more with His. I have learned to let go and allow Him to provide all the details as I lay before Him the desires of my heart. I have watched the Lord move in my life and take me places that I could have never imagined. When I was doing all this pondering as an 18 and 19 year old, I had no idea what all would take place over the next 31 years. I'm sure glad that the Lord didn't give me everything I thought I wanted because He knew exactly what I needed.
Are you stuck in a place where you just don't understand why the Lord isn't cooperating with all your plans? Are you indeed delighting in the Lord - or are you delighting in your desires? Do you trust Him to take those desires and align them with His? Will you let Him fill in the details?
Truly - making our goal each day to delight ourselves in the Lord would be a full time job and take the focus off of us entirely. I wonder if that is the key to having the desire of our hearts? Hmmm . . . .
It's interesting because I was thinking about this verse the other day. And I feel like I'm not thinking about exactly what I want but what God wants for me and the desires he gives me.
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