Delight Yourself in The Lord
Psalm 37:4 says,“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Many of us might have come across this verse series at times. We read it and we may think we have understood what it is all about. I have never actually thought about what it means to delight myself in the Lord, until now.
We desire several things in life, even though we may try to limit our desires as Believers. But we still have needs we desire; thus, our desires are often attached to what we think to be essential in our lives. Whenever I have a desire for something, I try to bring it before God. And, when it turns out that my desire was not met, I never question why because I have come to understand it was perhaps not the will of God. Nonetheless, it becomes frustrating when our deepest desire does not get fulfilled. Why? We thought surely He would give us what our heart desires. Why is He not fulfilling this desire? Maybe because we have forgotten to delight ourselves in Him? Maybe our delight was rather in the fulfillment of the desire rather than in the Lord?
His Desire
When we delight in our desires, we tend to lose sight of God´s actual desire for us. He says, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11) His desires for us are good. The moment we delight ourselves in Him, we start delighting ourselves in His desires as well. We start trusting in His plans for us because His plans for us are good. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we rejoice in His answers to our open doors, and to our closed doors as well. Additionally, we understand why He had locked the door. In our delight, we comprehend the decisions of our Heavenly Father because He is good. All He wants is to bless us with that which is good for us.
I love to rejoice in the Lord but as a result of an event that has occurred, I realize though I love to rejoice in the Lord, in all his goodness, faithfulness, and answered prayers I had become so comfortable that my delight was now attached to my desires. After this event, I realize my delight has been in everything but in the Lord. In the Mercy of God, it´s easy to lose sight of God. Thus, it is about constantly delighting in the Lord. He knows well in which season we find ourselves. And, He also knows what we need in the seasons we find ourselves. However, all He seeks is for us to firstly delight in Him and He will give us the desires of our heart.