Your Heart's Desire

The scripture tells us He will give us the desire of our hearts, right? So why do we sometimes feel that it's not coming? Why, often, do we not even know what our heart's desire is? My gut tells me that if I were to ask right now "what is your heart's desire" in my small group or Sunday school or discipleship session-most of what I would receive would be blank stares. We don't know. We don't know what we are passionate about...and those of us who do, those of us who have determined our heart's desire are confused about why we aren't receiving it!

I think to better understand this promise, we have to investigate the command that goes along with it. My dad often teaches that Scripture is full of commands with a promise. For example-an easy one-"follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." In other words, I will provide a career for you if you leave your current one and follow Me. This sort of command/promise relationship happens all the time. Our promise we are visiting is found in Psalm 37. Verses 3 & 4 are as follows:

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart."

The first thing I notice is that there are a lot of commands here that we probably aren't following 100%. We may not be receiving the desires of our hearts because we aren't trusting in God, dwelling in Him, relishing His faithfulness in good and bad times, or delighting ourselves in Him and Him alone. Wow-that's quite a list. But, knowing what we know about who God is, it should be our goal and reward to follow those commands. We should be thrilled to obey and dwell in our Lord! However, for whatever reason we don't. 

The second thing I notice is that we may not be using the phrase "give you the desires" properly. Is it entirely possible that if our mindset is wholly and completely on Jesus, as the commands tell us to, our desire will be whatever He wants it to be. In other words, He will place Jesus-driven desires in your heart. So, we may not be getting our desires because they aren't the ones He has placed in your heart. Also, we give blank stares because He hasn't given us our desires to long for yet...because we aren't trusting Gim and dwelling in Him. 

I've thought a lot about this verse and my heart's desire/my passions lately. I wonder if these things can change. If something I'm so passionate about or that my heart desires so fully can be removed/changed to fulfil a completely different purpose. As I've studied and read, I'm finding that if I believe God is putting those desires there and fulfilling them as we obey Him, they absolutely can change. While my desire to live fully for Him is going to (should) be the root of all of my passion, the way that passion is displayed in my heart and my desires can change based on the season to which He has called me. 

I think my goal in writing this post is to encourage myself and others to first follow the commands. Commit yourself daily to trust Him, dwell in His faithfulness, and delight in who He is. Then, and only then, will the true and deep desires of your heart be made known and achievable. Don't despair if you are feeling a little lost. Don't despair if you feel your passions have changed. Just know, He will place His desires in your heart if only you'll obediently allow Him to lead.