“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the DESIRES of thine heart.” Psalm 37:4
I love word studies! Do you? I have been saved for decades … and you probably have too. We reach a point in our Christian lives where living for God becomes mundane. Going to church becomes mundane. Praying becomes mundane. Reading the Bible becomes mundane. We have been to church so many times, heard so many messages preached, and quoted scripture so much that we can now do it backward and in our sleep! Is not this exactly where the devil wants to find you and me?
This is where word studies become your best friend. It is important to read our Bibles and it is important to study our Bibles … those are two very different things … that a word study would reveal to us. But, the most important thing is what we do to live and obey God’s Word.
I am an analytical, detailed person to begin with, so it is very disconcerting to me when someone tells me to do something, but does not clearly explain (aka draw a picture for me of) how to do it. My husband is the king of following verbal directions when driving. Me … ummm, can we skip that part? I am the queen of details … in black and white! I love black and white, what about you? We have a running joke in our house that if I were kidnapped, I would not need to be blindfolded because I would not be able to find my way back … without a map! #truestory
David finished telling us yesterday that we are to bring delight to ourselves through bringing delight to our LORD. I am so glad that you came back today because now we get to finish David’s musings on this thought! Yay! Are you excited? I am!
I am so glad that David took the hard road, aka the school of hard knocks, so that he could teach us a thing or two. Today we will look at the second “D” word in this verse and that is desire. Before we jump the gun on defining it from our mental perception, let me share what the dictionary says it means. Desire can actually be used as a verb or a noun … and both mean virtually the same thing … to strongly wish or want something.
Too often this verse is taken apart and focus and emphasis is put on the second part … about God giving us the desires of our hearts. This is all nice and fluffy feeling. But, when we do this, we totally lose the thought and intent of what David is trying to tell us … that when we are delighting ourselves in the LORD and bringing delight to Him, He is going to give us new desires (II Corinthians 5:17). These desires will match up with His Word and with His desires for us.
Have you ever prayed to God for something? You desired it so much that you fervently and frequently cried out to Him to fulfill that desire? I have. What happened? He fulfilled HIS desire of what HE wanted to accomplish in my life! Guess what? It was exactly what I desired, just not in the form that I desired (thought it would be). Is not that just like a father to know better than his child what form is best? Bring delight to Him, my friend, and watch Him fulfill His promise of fulfilling His desires in your life!