God's Promises #5
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
What do you desire? Adventure? Success? The right partner? Wealth? Fulfillment?
That last one hits home with me. It feels like I fly from one thing to the next seeking fulfillment. If I can just achieve this... or help this many people...or serve in this way...I will feel fulfilled. And so it goes in a never ending cycle of trying, not finding, and trying again someway else.
I recently saw a quote that stopped me in my tracks and began to change the way I look at life.
This verse is a promise that if we put all our energy into delighting in Him, which so frequently, if not all the time, requires self denial, He fulfills our deepest desires.
I do not mean to say that everything you want right now is going to be given to you, but that all your longings will be fulfilled by Him in ways more wonderful than you can even imagine. That is what God is promising in this verse. Delight yourself in Him, choose a life self denial over self fulfillment, as Christ did. I don't remember Jesus saying anywhere, "Wow, guys, I feel really fulfilled right now!" No, but his life was a constant example of self denial.
Do you have things you want? Of course you do, everyone does. Delight yourself in God, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
What do you desire? Adventure? Success? The right partner? Wealth? Fulfillment?
That last one hits home with me. It feels like I fly from one thing to the next seeking fulfillment. If I can just achieve this... or help this many people...or serve in this way...I will feel fulfilled. And so it goes in a never ending cycle of trying, not finding, and trying again someway else.
I recently saw a quote that stopped me in my tracks and began to change the way I look at life.
"The true gospel is a call to self denial. It is not a call to self fulfillment." John MacArthurIn that moment I realized that all my energy had been going into what I wanted. Going into what I needed to feel good about myself. Sure, it was disguised pretty well as a desire to serve others, but only for the purpose of causing me to feel good inside.
This verse is a promise that if we put all our energy into delighting in Him, which so frequently, if not all the time, requires self denial, He fulfills our deepest desires.
I do not mean to say that everything you want right now is going to be given to you, but that all your longings will be fulfilled by Him in ways more wonderful than you can even imagine. That is what God is promising in this verse. Delight yourself in Him, choose a life self denial over self fulfillment, as Christ did. I don't remember Jesus saying anywhere, "Wow, guys, I feel really fulfilled right now!" No, but his life was a constant example of self denial.
Do you have things you want? Of course you do, everyone does. Delight yourself in God, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
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