My heart’s desires...

 

My sister, now with Jesus, was my best friend. One time she went with me to take art lessons. She was not good at it, but supported me entirely. Later her work as a store owner became tiresome at times so she decided to take art lessons. Her instructor was strict and made her erase mistakes until she got it right. Eventually she was teaching classes to children and after one still life class she decided to draw a set-up none of the class had selected. It was an arrangement of hockey equipment and her drawing impressed a young man and also one of her sons. He had connections and eventually secured a contract with the NHL for his mom to do hockey art featuring major league jerseys. She wound up with a website and doing work for home teams as well.

In the meantime, I painted wildlife and animal portraits. I had an agent who sold my work, but eventually the desire to paint dwindled and I started writing. Several thousand articles later, most of them published, eventually became less of a desire. One day I saw a quilt on a magazine cover that depicted golfing and decided to make it as a gift for my husband. When finished, I was amazed at the satisfaction of creating and giving away the result. Years later, I’m still quilting and although I’ve won ribbons, I seldom show my quilts, mostly making them for people who need them. The satisfaction of giving them away has been a continual delight.

All this to say that for my sister, who loved Jesus passionately, and for myself whose delight in the Lord grew to the same, we both found the truth of this verse:

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

This does not say He will give me whatever I want, but that He gives me the ‘I wants’ — that the desires that come into my heart are from Him. For that, sis and I both knew we were doing what God wanted us to do. That didn’t mean we understood it! I was amazed at the development of her skill in both oils and pen and ink and she could not understand why I quit painting and writing to work with fabric. But since we both delighted ourselves in Jesus, it was a mutual appreciation.

Both of us learned contentment with life from our mother too. She often said, “We must need this or we would not be getting it.” The “this” was weather, hardship, good times, whatever came along. It marked her trust in Almighty God who is sovereign and her faith resulted in not fighting life but taking it as it comes. The context of the above verse is today’s praise:

Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Psalm 37:1–6)

It goes on, mostly encouragement to not envy the prosperity of wicked people, but also has snatches of why this contentment is possible. We have a God who makes incredible promises of prosperity and blessing. He upholds us, grants abundance, generosity, and picks us up when we fall. He makes our children a blessing, gives us wisdom, puts His will in our hearts, and is our stronghold. In life is over here, we have eternal life with Him.

PRAY: Lord, my relationship with my sister is one of many examples of Your amazing goodness. It and so many other blessings fill me with wonder of You. How could I not delight in You and the  assurance I have from knowing that when this delight (that You also give me) is part of my life, then I know that what I want is from You also. You are a gracious God who puts good desires in my heart. Thank You.