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K. Day

Desires

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

This verse is one of my favorites yet I find it quite interesting. It does not sound hard to just delight in the Lord to be given the desires of our heart. Let me quickly make it clear though, it is not a quick fix for a broken life. This verse is not a guarantee for a Christian to have a perfect stress-free life that grants us our list of potential wants in life but rather a way of life.

I guess it is all about perspective. Let’s break the verse down. (In the world of education we would say “chunk it”) The verse starts out with the word “take.” This word is a verb that demonstrates a deliberate action. Think about things we take. We take a teacup out of the cupboard or take luggage off a shelf in the closet. We take milk out of the frig and take the laundry basket into the laundry room. We take our belongings on a trip, if someone hands us something we take it, and we even take the hand of a loved one while strolling. In each of these events we are actively doing something. We are deliberate about our actions.

In this verse we are called to “take delight in the Lord.” When we take delight in something we experience an extreme amount of pleasure or enjoyment. In life, this is shown in a variety of ways. Some take delight in spending and acquiring material possessions, some take delight in luxurious vacations, power, knowledge, or even career status and titles, yet we are called to “take delight in the Lord.”

Those who take delight in the Lord worship Him, love Him, honor Him, and serve Him. As a result of a relationship that is developed with Him, life will be viewed differently. We will come to know what is really important in life and the desires of our heart will become more aligned with His desires. By “taking delight in Him” we will begin to realize his unspeakable joy. The pleasures we will start to experience will overflow and become the true desires of out heart and we will have a clearer focus. It is good to have personal goals in your life but ask yourself are your goals aligned with His? Are you delighting in Him?

As I stated at the beginning of this post, this verse is not a quick fix for a broken life. It will require you to deliberately set aside time daily to “take delight in Him” and soon you will see He will abundantly “give you the desires of your heart.” The really cool part is you will be sharing those desires with Him and will know they are good.

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