The Desires of My Heart

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. -Psalm 37:4

"I used to believe it meant that if I did what the Lord asked of me, followed His commandments, and was a 'good girl,' He would grant all my desires and make my dreams come true. ...but I have learned to interpret it in a totally different way. It is not about God making my dreams come true, but about God changing my dreams into His dreams for my life." -Katie Davis, Kisses from Katie, pg. XX

I read this months ago, but I don't think I got it until last week.

Last Sunday, Bruxy [the teaching pastor at my church] talked about how God can speak to us through our desires. If you're trying to make a decision, what you desire might very well be what God's desire for you is as well.

If you lose yourself in following God, if you delight yourself in Him, your desires will align with His. No, Psalm 37:4 doesn't mean if you follow all the rules that God will reward you by giving you a million dollars. But If you're so caught up with putting all your delight in the Lord, your desires will align with His.

I don't know about you, but I'd like my desires to be aligned with God's, rather than Him giving me all my earthly desires.

There's some common misconception that God's will is so tough, and it's never gonna be what you want to do. If you "give up" your life to serve God you're going to hate it. Who came up with that anyways?

It's not true.

If you surrender everything to God and tell Him you'd like to do His will, you will like doing it. I can guarantee that.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. -Philippians 2:13

He's giving you the desire [AND the power!] to advance His Kingdom... No more excuses not to!

I wrote this in my journal the other night:

It makes sense, actually. I mean, God created us to do His will. He also loves us and wants us to be happy. So why is there a misconception that doing His will will make us miserable? No way. HE knows what we want, need and desire better than we do.

What I saw in the UrbanPromise Wilmington staff was a group of people doing God's will, if I ever saw one. In no way are they miserable. Sure, it might be hard some days. It might be tough and discouraging. But it's what they desire. Their desires have been totally aligned with God's.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will change your desires into His, and give you the desires of your heart... Because they're His. Get it? :)