Thoughtful Thursday--Desire

    

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;

     dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

 Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 Commit your way to the Lord;

     trust in him, and he will act.

Psalm 37:3-5

This is one of the most comforting passages in Scripture...of which there are many. It's so good to know that our God is trustworthy, isn't it? The author of the Psalm says to trust in the Lord, because we can! He has proven Himself again and again, throughout Scripture and throughout the lives of people around me, that He is worthy of trust. By His very nature, which is perfectly good, He cannot be anything but trustworthy. If He were not, He would not be God.

He has said it, and it will come to pass. He promised to sacrifice His only Son and to raise Him from death, and He did it. He promised to send a Comforter (the Holy Spirit) and He did. He has promised to save all who call on His name, and He does.

I love the simple commands of this passage and the promises that follow. You do this; and God will do this. The simplicity reminds me of another favorite passage:

He has told you, O man, what is good;

    and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

They may be simple, but simple does not mean easy! I want to focus on the first command with a promise:

 Delight yourself in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Often it is the hardest thing to delight only and completely in the Lord. So many of my prayers have been, "Oh Lord, please give me _______" and not "Oh Lord, please give me Yourself." I have even fallen in the trap of thinking that 'if I succeed in "delighting" myself in the Lord, then He will give me what I really want!' So wrong! It's only when we totally let go of any other thing we would desire and are completely satisfied by Him, that He can give us our hearts desire...which would be Him at that point! I've come to realize that when I read this verse, I thought this meant that I had to delight in God, and then God would be all I got. What a rotten perspective. (all I got? God is all we need) Instead, I think it means that when we delight in Him, our desires will be His desires, which He is pleased to give to us!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 

James 1:17

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:11

So, our hearts should be pure, meaning not divided in their affections. God should be our single desire; the one thing we seek after. But this does not mean we won't receive any good things the Lord desires to give us. And don't even think you can fool God! 

So, while this is absolutely applicable to anyone and everyone, I know from experience that young women who are hoping for the blessing of marriage struggle with this concept most acutely. Save yourself the years of struggle and just let it go now. Make the Lord, and serving Him, your sole desire. Every time the idol of marriage pops up, knock it back down, and look into the face of your Lord. The blessings will be overwhelming. I know I wish I had learned this a lot earlier in life. But God graciously brought me to that place not so long ago and has blessed me immensely!

Blessings!