YOUR HEART'S DESIRE
YOUR HEART’S DESIRE
Trust [rely on and have confidence] in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and feed [securely] on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart. (Psalm 37:3-4 Amplified Bible) Let’s be honest. When we read this scripture our eyes focus on the “desires and petitions of your heart” part in the passage, right? I know it was for me, and maybe it still is, in a way. The reason my eyes are not drawn there as much as it was for a long period in my life is because they are now drawn to the “Trust, Dwell and Delight” aspects of the verse. My focus has changed, for I have discovered that the desires of my heart are a benefit, a fruit that comes from trusting God more deeply, dwelling in my fellowship with Him more permanently, and delighting in Him more often. These things can be summarized in one word that Jesus gave us. ABIDE in Him. I have discovered after many years with abiding in Christ, as He abides in me that this journey with Him becomes a path that leads to the desires of my heart. Why is this? Why does this passage require these aspects of my relationship before I receive the desire of my heart? Well let’s think about that question. Do a litmus test on your heart. Ask yourself what you would define as a desire of your heart? Does this desire concern material things? Does this desire concern sinful things? Does this desire concern your personal wants over your personal needs? If it does, then it is pretty obvious these desires are driven by selfish motives and desires. Don’t expect this to be on God’s favorite list to grant you (us) for WE have a lot to learn before we see this promise being fulfilled as God says He will. How about something not so selfish? It may include others, as well yourself? Does this desire concern safety, protection, security, and a feeling of significance? Those are not bad desires, for we all have them. God knows these needs, and He wants to remove any debilitating emotional fears that drive many of those aspects of our life into imbalance and inadequacy. He wants us to be secure in Him and His grace, which is all sufficient for anything we face, and it is better. But therein a problem may be discovered that keeps us from realizing the desires of our heart. This leads us to a question: Do we see His presence and knowledge about every aspect of our life to be sufficient for anything we face, or do we think we have to inform Him as if He is unaware? Do we think we know better than He, and need to inform Him with what to do and when to do it? Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t petition God and ask for His help. We are encouraged to do this in the scripture above, and as well in many other scriptures. To be clear about what I’m saying is that there is a path that leads to those petitions being granted more frequently, if we follow it. Do you know the path that He has given to you? This path comes by way of our abiding relationship with Him. It is there that we are given assurance (confidence in Him), security (because of Him), delight in Him (through abiding). Our petitions will flow from the heart that trusts in Him, because the desires of this new heart line up with God’s desires for us. How does this occur? It is because He exchanges our old heart condition when we abide in Him, and we then begin to see our needs through His point of view. All of the benefits of being God’s son or daughter are realized in our intimate fellowship with our Father through His Spirit in us as His child. Let His Spirit be our guide and He will walk us to that which we deep down desire. He will walk us to the Right desires of our heart.