Delighted!

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

From this verse, it is easy to suppose that God is like an indulgent parent who spoils a child with everything that child desires. When my parents were told that I would not live long, they spoiled me with indulgence, and understandably so. When I became a Christian, I thought God would be like that. Of course, I had to learn that He is not like that at all. He calls the shots; I do not.

After reading the above verse, I was puzzled. I’d already learned that God would NOT give me whatever I wanted, but here was this amazing promise. What does it mean?

One pastor explained that when we are delighted with God, He puts new desires in our hearts. That is, what I want the most changes because God changes my ‘I wants.’ This sounded good but it didn’t take long before I realized that it would take a lifetime to rid me of all selfishness and self-centered desires, never mind change them to something else. I was focused on the negatives, the things that needed to change in me.

A quick look reveals that most commentaries take the verse just as it sounds; that God does meet the needs, even the wants of His people, but there is a qualifier: “Delight yourself in the Lord.”

Again, I compared my thoughts of God with my parents. I love my parents, yet I also felt empty and ill-equipped with their indulgence. I understand the motivation, but after proving wrong that medical prediction of an early death, I realized that most of my ‘satisfied desires’ were trivial. I really wanted something else. For one thing, I wanted to be better prepared for life.

This is the ‘why’ behind these devotional thoughts called “Practical Faith” — the desires of my heart are mostly about understanding and responding to all that life involves. I wanted this from my parents, and even though well-meaning, they let me down. However, the Lord picked me up.

Even so, from the beginning of my Christian life, I’ve been learning what it means to delight in Him, not in what He can do for me, not in His many blessings, but in God Himself. This is not the same as a child delighting in a new toy or a candy bar. This delight is deeper, more constant, and it is based on who and what God is, not on what He does for me.

The God I know is entirely delightful. He is holy, sovereign, exalted, and awesome. I cannot cajole Him into spoiling me, but I can trust Him to be all He says He is. He is the source of delight, the perfection of grace, compassion, mercy, kindness, patience and love. He reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, and the better I know him the more I delight in Him.

One writer says that the reason many Christians do not delight in God is that they do not know Him very well, and the reason they do not know Him well is that they do not spend time with Him. The older I get, the more I want to read the Word of God and pray, enjoying His presence in both as I realize that the desires of my heart have always been to know and love God, to praise Him and to be with Him.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord God, Your goal is to transform me into the likeness of Your Son. That also is a desire of my heart. I may not have recognized this initially, but once You showed me Romans 8:28-29, it became clear.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28–29)

It is also clear that the events and all things in my life are designed for Your use in this process of change. Good or bad, everything has the purpose of transformation, not to spoil me with blessings or punish me with tough times, but to make me more like You . . .  and that has become the desire of my heart.