Do you know the verse? Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
I feel this has been so misquoted over the years for our own selfish gain. So many people think that if they do right by God he is going to return their efforts by giving us the things we want.
So, people have their “vision boards” and their “things” listed out waiting on God to fulfill these human earthly wants and then upset when God doesn’t give them the desires.
They either lose faith or they keep trying harder and harder to do what they think pleases God to get what they want.
But that is so far from what this verse really means especially if you look at it in the context of the chapter.
If you continue to read Psalm 37:5-6 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: (6) He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” You commit your ways to God. What you want is a relationship with Him above everything else. And we receive a righteous reward. Not an earthly reward (and yes God does provide for those things and we are blessed by those things) but those are just “things”. And they are highly unimportant when it comes to serving God.
Our human nature often has us putting ourselves first and God second. We create our want list (us first) and then ask God to fulfill our wants (God second).
But the scripture is saying the opposite. Commit your way to the Lord, Take delight in the Lord. God is number one. THEN he gives you the desires of your heart or he makes your righteous reward shine..
The desire in our heart is not OUR desire for ourselves. It’s God’s desire for us. It’s a righteous desire with a righteous reward. When we are following God and putting him first. When we look to him for our needs. When we look to him for our desires, then he will give us those desires. It’s him who gives us those “wants” not us making a Santa laundry list of what we want.
Recently I feel like so much of who God is has been turned into our personal “genie in a bottle” in teachings both inside the church and from various people I see on social media. A life of faith, a true following of Christ is one where we earnestly seek him every day. What’s most important is what we can do for him not what he can do for us.
And when it comes down to it, doing for others is far more rewarding than anything we will ever get, have, want, or achieve. And those earthly wants are never enough, are they? It’s all fun for a while and then we are on to the next “want.” But seeking God every day and in everything we do, that’s what really matters. God all the time, Gods wants for us, God creating those desires for us.
