The Desires of the Heart
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
As 2022 ended, I reflected upon all the incredible things God showed me in the past year. I learned that Sonshine Day Camp is my absolute favourite season, He reminded me that I love teaching the kids the Bible, and He even pointed out that I need to be better in the kitchen through our cooking activities. Yet, beyond all that, in His kindness, He revealed my passions to me and what I hope to do someday.
The questions that arose after this realization were “how do I get there?” and “are these ideas too impractical?”. God has done this incredible thing by enlightening me with dreams and aspirations that I’m passionate about but didn’t give me a map or blueprint on how to get there.
But it was in a moment of worship with the children where I was reminded that God is in full control of my future. The song Never Let Go of Me by Lifetree Kids is a song that we sing during our KIC program; and this time, when we sang it, it was so evident that God was speaking to me through its lyrics.
“Cleared up my mind when You erased all doubt You made me strong when I was weak / You rescued me…
…You are the God who holds / my future, all my dreams so I am holding on / You never let go of me”.
Upon hearing these lyrics, I started to dig deeper into this idea of “dreams” and “desires”. I asked the question, “does God simply give us whatever we want?”. Psalms 37:4 says that he gives us the desires of our hearts; so, does this mean that if we desire luxury items or highly regarded positions He will give them to us? Tremper Longman in his commentary on the Psalms looks at Psalms 37:4 and poses this argument,
“[The] one who delights in the Lord will have desires that conform to God’s will for their lives. God will grant what they request”. (Longman III, 2014).
As I read this, I learned that my job is to delight in the Lord. When my doubt starts to discourage me and I think my desires are too grand, my job is to delight in the Lord. When it feels like God is taking me the long way to what I think my God-given aspirations are, my job is to delight in Him. When my life starts to unfold differently than I expected, my job is to sit in the throne room and delight in the Father. Why? Because not only is He the one who holds my dreams but the one who gives them to me.
So, delight in the Lord and allow Him to give you the desires of your heart. Delight in the Lord and let Him erase the doubt you have in His timing. Delight in the Lord and trust that he will mould and refine your God-given dream as it aligns with His perfect will. Delight in the Lord because He is both the giver and the holder of your future and all your dreams.
¹ Tremper Longman III. (2014). Psalms : An Introduction and Commentary. IVP Academic. p. 177