Desires of Your Heart

April 3, 2013
Journal Entry:

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

So many times I've read this and felt a tinge of embarrassment. It somehow feels selfish, like I am to pursue you, Lord, to get what I want. I don't want to think of you as a big Santa in the Sky.

Cross references:

 

"You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah" Psalm 21:2

 

What did the king receive?

v. 1 strength, salvation

v. 3 the blessings of good things, a crown of gold (kingship/position)

v. 4 length of days

v. 5 splendor and majesty

 

What did the king request of the Lord?

v. 4  Life

 

Of all the things you gave the king, the one thing requested was Life. The desire of his heart was Life.

 

Lord, this is my heart's desire. I praise you for the overwhelming gift of salvation - a new life of walking with you and being welomed into your presence through the work of Jesus Christ.  Lord, would you work in my heart that this gift of life would be full and alive within me? Lord, the power of spring - the glory of the ground and trees bursting forth - that is the life I long for in my life - Energy. Joy. Power.

 

"He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. " Psalm 145:19

 

 - a sense of salvation in the context; being rescued and helped in a time of trouble; Safety was the heart's desire

 

"  '(keep asking), and it will be given to you; (keep seeking), and you will find; (keep knocking), and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  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 7:7-8; 11

 

PROMISE!! 

 

There is a command and there is a promise. There is love in the these gifts, based up on the requests of a child. A child asks for what they simply desire - maybe not even knowing if it is best for them.  You will give what is good. Yet, you instruct and command: Keep Asking...Keep Seeking...Keep Knocking. You want us to Keep Pursuing You.

 

I am not that kind of parent.

 

My brain is adverse to those who continuously persist with their requests. Change my brain! Teach me to pursue you hard and not give up. Teach me to delight in repeatedly coming to you...asking...seeking...knocking...

 

Let me never give up laying my heart's desires before you, that they would be continually shaped and fulfilled by your good measures.

"God's word must be the guide of your desires, and the ground of your expectations in prayer;" - Matthew Henry, The Secret of Communion with God