Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." A Christ-centered life, or being a Christ follower, has an inherent promise that God fills your heart with desires. We are not devoid of them once we become Christ's followers, nor are we to abandon them altogether. Most religions persuade you to abandon desires, empty yourself, or get rid of them.
Recently, the Lord was impressing on my heart a few things that I have been meditating on trying to articulate here. In the book of Proverbs, there is a verse that says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and desire realized is the Tree of Life." It is apparent here that the Lord uses our desires for the ultimate goal in our transformation to become like Him but rooting us back into the Tree of Life. The verse is intriguing and makes me think there is a deep correlation between hope, faith, and love. When one's hope diminishes, the heart is likely to be on the pathway to spiritual sickness (or journeys to the dark places of the soul), and the enemy waits for that to lead us into despair, discouragement, and depression. The illness is followed by a deep sense of betrayal, loneliness, and a breeding ground for Satan's motivations.
So, our hearts must be filled with hope. How do we practically do this? As revealed by King David, the Psalms have secrets built in, and the kind Lord has revealed them to us, so we use these weapons to fill our hearts with hope. One of those pathways of shepherding our soul lies through thanksgiving and praise. When we intentionally steep our hearts in places of gratitude to the Lord, we position and posture ourselves to enter His courts. One of the psalms rightfully sings, "Enter into His courts with thanksgiving and praise." Praise is another weapon in worship where we take our focus from ourselves and look upon His radiant face. Praise ushers in His presence into our situations. Praise was designed for our benefit, not His. It's telling our souls that no matter what, I am elevating myself into seeking His face and presence and not going to give my attention or devotion to inferior things vying for my attention. When this happens, our hearts slowly start filling with hope. And then hope dares to believe and raise the banner of faith to see the unseen. Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) quotes: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."
Now, we need to know that desires compete with our delight and desire of the Lord. The revelation that the Lord recently impressed on me was when I came before Him in brokenness and a contrite heart, positioning my heart to desire Him more than all my other competing desires. At that time, He could trust me with those things that enlarge the capacity of my soul and those things that He wants to indeed bless me with. Sometimes, when we are not ready for those blessings without having the capacity to handle them, we can be crushed by them. It does not mean the Lord does not fulfill those desires. Sometimes he does, but most of the time, it follows with tests if we are making them our idols or making Him the center and chief desire of our lives.
May we all live with this foremost desire of making Him our first love and trusting Him with all our desires; indeed, He will fulfill the desires of our hearts. Jesus modeled His life for us this way, seeking the Father and his will alone, and whatever He asked of the Father, it was released in His ministry and work on earth. Our lives are no different; we are to live like He did. Simply desiring the Father and His will, and everything we need is supplied, but more importantly, we are rooted in Him, the source of everlasting life.
Shalom and Blessings,
Sam
