Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
– Psalms 34:4
I’ve heard several takes on this one. Everything from name it and claim it to God will tell your heart what to desire. The former is an abuse of greed. The latter a rewording based on fear of misuse and misunderstanding.
I have to stick with the given translation here. Because if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. He says elsewhere that he gives good gifts to his children, even better gifts than we fathers give our children. So why wouldn’t he give you or me the desires of our hearts? Because our hearts are desperately wicked? Okay. I’ll even give you that. But there’s more to it than getting your heart’s desires.
How many people could legitimately delight themselves in the Lord and still lust after another man’s wife? How many people could delight themselves in the Lord and still ask him for something wretched? What we fail to realize is that God fashioned and formed each one of us to be unique, and part of that uniqueness comes in the form of what we desire, enjoy, and find fulfillment in.
I just recently heard of a man who is well respected for his maturity and prophetic gifting. He gets all these amazing business ideas and gives them away to people because he has had no method of executing them on his own. He’s an excellent golfer, and has been for decades. He could have gone pro, but he felt like he was supposed to enter full-time ministry. He’s helped dozens of people with business ideas, and helped them pursue their passions with excellence, but he’s not doing it himself. Some people who love him started encouraging him to pursue his passions. He’d been delighting in the Lord more and more, and God began opening the door for him to play golf!
It may sound silly, but he does it with excellence, he receives fulfillment from playing well, and he has excellent avenues of ministry opportunity with other golfers and members of resorts and country clubs around the country. God has some amazing things planned for this guy who delights himself in the Lord!
Take me, for example. I have wanted to write a few books for awhile now, but have yet to seriously take a stab at it. Writing is a desire of my heart. I am passionate about expressing my thoughts and ideas on paper or the web. But I am also limited, and I think part of it may revolve around the fact that I have tried to make my heart’s desires happen on my own – apart from delighting in God.
Delighting in God is such an enjoyable activity, it is really its own reward. A person is NEVER more fulfilled than when he or she delights himself/herself in the Lord. And I think that’s the point. God releases the grace, ability, and resources to those who delight in him because he can trust them. A person who delights in the Lord won’t turn their other heart’s desires into idols. Our Father wants to be Numero Uno. Do that, and he will entrust you with more than you can imagine. You will finally be trustworthy enough to receive it.