Desire

Psalm 37:4
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart

Many are dubious about this.  ‘Desires of my heart?’ That seems to most like coloring with a jumbo crayon. Very vague. Lots of ´wiggle room´.  Let’s look at it closer.

You can control the desires of your heart by controlling what you delight in.  You delight in what you invest most in. American’s most precious commodity is time.   If you spend an hour a day in the Word and prayer, and 4 hours a day looking at dirty movies and pictures and listening to dirty jokes and obscene music, what are you delighting in? Where will your heart be?  I guarantee if you spend 4 hours in the Word and following the Lord each day, your internal desires and yearnings will change.  Probably a revelation of your true standing with the Lord, the destiny of your soul as well.

First step is ‘delighting yourself in the Lord’. Delighting in God is inferring that You are making Him your favorite topic.  The Holy Spirit will help you if you are saved.  The desires of your heart are what delights you and visa versa.  If you delight in God, the desires of your heart are in line with that. Desires of your heart are your inner most yearnings.

Desires and ‘likes’ are different. I like dogs, looking at art, attempting to draw and play music, surfing, hiking, swimming and even watching a good movie. I like to eat when I am hungry.  But I only love and yearn for the desires of my heart.  In the wee hours of morning, I dwell on His holiness, and my desire to be with Him, to know Him.  I am not even thinking of surfing or pizza.

You can’t get enough of God when He is your favorite thing in existence. For that reason you’re only desire is doing something in His name, for Him. You delight in God because He is what you think about day and night.  You desire to learn more of Him and teach others. When He comes up in every conversation in one way or another, it’s because He is the centerpiece of your life.  Like a proud parent, you desire to share Him. You can’t see a humming bird or a sunset without praising Jesus.  His greatness thrills you.  Problems don’t really paralyze you because you have His Joy and strength no matter what.  You desire to someday share things that are happening to you, to help someone else to know Him better.  You know all things are going to work out.  You have a confidence and a purpose which gives you joy no matter what the appearances may suggest.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Joy unspeakable describes delight in God.  Joy in the Lord makes me tremble sometimes in reverence and anticipation.  Looking at the ocean for example, reading His Holy Word, sharing the pure Gospel (not to be confused with arguing doctrine), feeding the hungry, blessing the children and the poor are all delightful for me.   When I delight myself in the Lord, He grants all the desires of my heart.

What are the desires of the heart for someone who delights in the Lord?  Salvation, safety, security, fellowship, family, comfort, holiness, health, success, finances, winning others to the Lord, ministry, the list goes on.  All good things.  I believe the Lord wants you to have all of these things.  It’s good to have these Godly desires.  Desires are good, and because God loves you, He wants to bless you by fullfilling them for you.  It’s just like me noticing something that my wife/kids want, something the Pureheart Pre-k staff wants, or what a kid in the feeding center wants, I delight in getting if for them if I can.  I dote on the people I love.  God can, and He will spoil us if we let Him.  He loves to dote on His loves as well.

Godly desires are always good.  Worldly desires are not always so good, and more often then not, bad.  They can look good, but in reality are bad things.  For example, providing for your family is good but trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ is bad. Liking music is good but selling your soul for a label, not so good. Competition, aggression, wealth, pride, vanity, false religions, religiosity, etc all may look good, but often are misleading.   Words like ‘spirituality’ sound good, but usually are referring to demonic activity rather than Godly things.

A big challenge here is to diferenciate between desires of the heart and ‘wants’.  You have to ask yourself ‘what delights you?’ I have seen and even know people that absolutely delight in the Lord, Their desires are always in line with the Lord because they delight in God.  I also know people who delight in evil.  Because of that, they desire evil. Their hearts are evil.

Desires are real, whether Godly or worldly.  Do not mock people with sick and perverted desires.  Pray for them. Love them. They can’t help themselves. Their desires are often stronger to do evil than ours are to do good. My heart aches for then. They don’t delight in the Lord for whatever reason, some of which are beyond their fleshly control. There but for the grace of God go I. We can actually help them though if we love them the way Christ loves them. We can introduce them to the Resurrecting Power of Jesus. Knowing Jesus truly makes you want to delight in Him.  He can change the desires of your heart, the yearnings of your soul.

Delight in God or delight in the world.  It’s your choice.  Something good will be your desire if you follow God.  Not such good desires usually develop if you follow the world’s philosophies and marketing. A lot of rotten fruit can accompany delighting in worldly things. There’s a saying, if someone is doing wrong, don’t worry.  Rotten fruit falls by itself.  Phil Yancey says we should be ‘grace dispensers, not son exterminators’ to others.  It’s our job to be there and help them once they’ve landed and see that no one can help them except a God Himself (Psalm 107).  How do you know where someone is spiritually?  You’ll know them by their desires, what they delight in, and by their fruit.

Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

In the days of the prophets, they used hooks to get pieces of meat out of the offerring plates.  They were called flesh hooks.  Eli´s son´s were bad priests, and used ´flesh hooks´ to get the best pieces of meat for themselves to eat.  I think the word flesh hook comes to mind when I think of sin.  It´s hooks the desires of the flesh (your flesh) and you are done!  Done, that is until you learn to delight yourself in the Lord and change your fleshly desires.

Galatians 5: 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is the delicious fruit and desires if you delight in the one true God.  These are His desires as well was what should be your desires over all.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Dean and Winnie Peters

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Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Nicaragua for the glory of God

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