The Desires of your Heart

"Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

A brother in Christ, who was a widower, requested prayer that he might, "meet a very pretty and attractive gal and get remarried." The response he received was that God has a "provision" for him and was reminded that, "So often God's timing isn't our timing, but He's got a perfect plan for you. We don't know what that plan is, or what His timing is, but just trust. He took care of you the first time, right, and He's taken care of all these other areas (i.e. health and finances) of your life...He's got you. He's got this! But, you just need to know God's got a perfect plan for you..." Eventually, a prayer was given for this man using Psalm 37:4 as the foundation; that this man just needs to "delight himself in the Lord," and the desire of his heart to remarry would eventually be fulfilled. But, in God's timing, etc. There have been many times in my life that I have either been personally told this by others or have heard others give this advice to someone seeking comfort for what they believe was missing in their life. God may have a plan for this gentlemen to get remarried. However, this advice that God has a plan for us is very generic and it has, at least, two problems with it. First, it assumes that the desires of our heart that God promises to fulfill are fleshly desires that we want Him to fulfill. Secondly, this "plan" that God, apparently, has for us is unknown by us and seemingly will not be revealed to us until these fleshly desires for a spouse or whatever are met. But, in the meantime we are to just wait and hope that we learn something about God or ourselves. This example sheds light on how a Christian's relationship with God is always portrayed as a mystery that is tied to how patient we are waiting for God to give us what we want, not necessarily what He wants to give us. There is also the impression given that until those desires are met, we are somehow incomplete and who knows what can develop from there; feelings God doesn't love us, our Christian life is unfulfilling, we can't "delight" ourselves in the Lord if we don't have what we want, etc. Furthermore, the scriptures provided as evidence of this are often interpreted from our viewpoint (the flesh) instead of from God's viewpoint (the Spirit).

The scriptures tell us that God is a jealous God. This doesn't mean that He covets what we have, but that He wants us! The true desires of our heart are not for the things of this world or of the flesh, like a spouse, but for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life. These are things that only God can provide because He is the one that put the desire there. What we really need is our God! Nothing in this world, no matter what we may convince ourselves to believe, can meet the desires of our heart; not a wife, not great wealth, not great health, nor any other earthly treasure can take the place of the Lord. This doesn't mean that God won't give you these things or, at the very least, allow you to experience them, After all, in a perfect world, He gave Adam a wife; Eve. Yet, He designed us in such a way that nothing can replace Him. To delight means to "take pleasure in." How can you take pleasure in the Lord if you are believing Him to give you something He has not promised to give and then wait for it for an undetermined amount of time? Also, how can you be expected to trust in God if the way He relates to you is to hide His plans from you? Besides, if you did get what you desired, whether He actually gave it to you or not, will you be satisfied or will the next "desire" take it's place? Perhaps, we should realize that as Christians God, "has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3), " that He, "has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3)" and that we "have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority (Colossians 2:10)." If you have been given everything you need for life and godliness, given every spiritual blessing and made complete through your faith in Christ, what really are you missing? When a person believes that God has already given them all these things that is where the foundation for trusting Him comes from. It doesn't come from trusting Him for something He didn't promise to give because if it did, then we have to ask why do some people seem to have certain things and others don't? Not everybody has a spouse. Not everybody is healthy. Not everybody is wealthy. Even many in the world seem to have all of this apart from having the Lord! So, what does that say about God? When you begin to take pleasure in what the Lord has already given you, Himself, then you can wait for those things He has not given you, if you even still desire them at all.