#6 Delight Yourself in the Lord...

#6 August 9, 2005
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

For the most part, Christians read Psalm 37, Verse 4 all wrong. We believe that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, all of our desires in life will be given to us. We would attain a great marriage, saved and Holy Ghost filled children, prosperity and health. All of our relationships would be perfect and blessed by God.

Are we ever wrong!

Looking back, this attitude and expectation from God is selfish with a capital S. It is all about us. If I just delight myself in the Lord, then I would have all of my desires met.

Yikes! Forgive me, Lord!

Look at the words again..."he will give you the desires of your heart." It doesn't say that he will give you everything that you want. I believe God is saying that He will place HIS desires in you. He will give you the desires. He will define what your desires are. He will make you want what He wants. He will put the desires in your heart.

A desire is a conscious impulse toward something that promises satisfaction in its attainment. It is a longing or a craving. God, replacing your longings for His longings. A divine exchange of your impulse for something with His. A renewing of your mind as far as what will satisfy you when it comes to pass, because it is what will satisfy Him.

How do I delight myself in the Lord? To delight is to take great pleasure in, to get joy or satisfaction from. In order to do this I must know God and what He is like. I must spend time in His word. I must acknowledge Him in every second of my day. I must spend quiet time listening for His voice just for me.

When we delight in something in the natural, it is because we love it, know how awesome it is; it gets us excited and fills us with joy. We want to spend time with it...so it must be with God.

As we make Him our number one priority, as we spend time with Him, as we abide (dwell) in Him over a period of time, we can supernaturally see our desires change.

We begin to desire to spend every waking moment in His word, praising Him, listening to music about Him. Whatever keeps us close to Him. We wish we didn't have to do anything else but commune with Him all day. Our church gatherings don't fill us up or satisfy us anymore. We become so hungry for more of Him that we're willing to do just about anything or even look foolish just to feel His presence. We long to go deeper and closer to our Daddy till we can see and touch His face.

His desire for all men to be saved becomes our desire. He puts in us a desire to give of our time and our finances in whole new ways to get the gospel to the far corners of the earth.

My best friend, Shari, let me know today that she and her husband will be leaving in three weeks to live in Honduras and work with orphaned children. They are perfectly willing to leave everything and everyone familiar to them, to follow after God's own heart..souls! They are a true example to me of how our desires can change and line up with God's desires when we draw closer and closer to Him and allow Him to change us from the inside out.

I believe that our prayer life will be revolutionized when God exchanges our desires for His. We find ourselves praying less about our needs and more about His desires. After all, our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask Him (Matt 6:8). Our prayers will be answered because if our prayers are according to His will (1 John 5:14-15), which they are if He has placed them there, He will certainly answer them. Aren't we also told to seek first His kingdom (Matt 6:33)?

We will begin to pray for God to change us, to make us more like Jesus. We will even pray to be convicted of sin and to go under the spiritual scalpel of the Holy Spirit if it means that we can get closer to Him. We will pray for and love the lost and the hurting people around us no matter their color or status or outward appearance. We will truly begin to love the unlovely! He will supernaturally allow us to see with His eyes, hear with His ears, cry about what makes Him cry. The material things that seemed so important to us will just seem like waste and diminish in their importance to us. The pain and hurt of the past will no longer be able to control and define our future. Our future will be so wrapped up in God's desires, that there will be no room for hurt, pain, bitterness, anger, resentment or anything that holds us back.

What are you desiring today? What do you think about most...pray about most? I urge you to carve out some time each day just for you and Jesus...DO IT TODAY! Delight in Him. Get to know Him through His word. Make a list of all of His attributes (i.e. His goodness, grace, forgiveness, faithfulness, power, kindness, mercy, compassion etc.). Have a great time praising Him - eyes on Him - eyes off you! Do this consistently, continuously and watch your desires change. It's true--He promises that it will happen. It's happened for me and God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). He does not show favoritism. If He did it for me, He'll do it for you.

One of my hearts desires is that you would be desperate for more of God in your life and that you would grow ever so close to Him and that nothing else would satisfy you except being one with Him. That's why I write. I believe that it's the driving force of God's desire for you and He has birthed that desire for you in me.

Delight yourself in the Lord!
Watch God change your desires!
Enjoy your changed life!

Until next week,

Donna Schultz
Savemom@aol.com



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