The Desires of Your Heart

Psalms 37:4

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

This verse has been on my mind quite a bit lately, and it has got me thinking: what are the desires of my heart? What does my heart yearn deeper for than just wants or ambitions?

This verse here tells us that if we delight in God, then He will give us our desires. The more I think about that verse, the more I see in it.

I’m going to focus on the last half of the verse to start off with.

“he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”

God is willing to give us what we most desire. That tells me there is nothing wrong with having yearnings and dreams. But I’m not talking about any silly old dream, like wanting that sports car or that ambition to be rich. I’m talking about stuff that matters, and that glorifies God. I believe God has given everyone at least one real desire, one that He intends to fulfill if we let Him.

So think about it. What are your desires? A mate in life? A specific ministry? Maybe God has given you a specific talent that you would love to use for His glory. If so, pray about them.

Psalms 10:17 says,

“LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:”

This verse says that God will hear your desire. To me, that shows prayer. God intends for us to pray to Him about our desires. Make sure they are rooted in Him, and not something of your own imagination. We can create our own desires, but God in only interested in the ones that He gave us. Pray and seek the Lord. If your desire is truly of Him, He will give you peace about it.

Back to the original verse, I want to emphasize “he shall give”. Not “he shall allow you to pursue”. Not “he shall give you strength to fulfill”. He shall give. You do not need to pursue the desires in your hearts. God will give them to you. That defies the logic of our finite brains. The world is constantly telling us “chase your dreams”. And it sounds good and all. But does it match with Psalms 37:4? No.

God wants you to wait on Him. If God gives you a desire, then rest assured He will make sure that it will come to pass when it is time. This may cause stress to some, especially those that like to be in control. I know I get anxious about waiting for God. But we should feel the opposite. God is the creator of the entire universe after all. He isn’t going to slip up. The fact that “He will give” instead of “we must obtain” should give us great peace. You may not have your desires yet, but rest assured, God is working.

But now let’s look at the beginning of the verse, because there is a requirement.

“Delight thyself also in the LORD:”

God isn’t going to just give us our desires. No, He wants us to delight in Him first. To show that we are not going to just waste what He gives us.

James 4:3 days,

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

If our hearts are not right, if our reason for wanting something is not pure, God may not give out those desires, for we will consume and ruin them.

So what do you delight in? What do you think about? What do you do in your spare time? What do you look forward to do? When you are feeling down, do you run to a video game or a hobby rather than God to get delight? When you first wake up in the morning, what do you look forward to do?

There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to working on a hobby, doing your job, spending time with family and friends, etc. But do you also delight in things of God? Do you look forward to your Bible reading, or is it something you do out of habit? Do you look forward to praying, or do you just do it because you know you should? What are you truly delighting in? If your joy and happiness does not come from God but from things of this world, then don’t expect God to grant you your desires.

Maybe you have been praying for something for a long times. Years even. And you feel that it is in God’s will but you wonder why God isn’t answering your prayers. Examine yourself. It’s possible that it just isn’t God’s time yet, but it’s also possible your heart is not right. And God will wait until He knows you are ready before giving you what you most desire. Because only if we delight in the Lord can we truly be happy with our desires, and not consume them on our lusts.

Be patient, seek the Lord, delight in Him. And God will grant you your desires, because He said He would.