The Desire of Your Heart and The Desire for God: The Link

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37: 4.

Psalm 37 is a wisdom poem written by King David. It addresses the dilemma of why evil people often prosper while the righteous suffer. But verse 4 encourages the believer to find joy in God, with the promise that He will grant the desires of the heart.

To read the entire psalm for context, click here.

The Prerequisite for the Desire of Your Heart

One day in prayer, it occurred to me that the Lord cannot give us, as believers, our hearts desire unless we delight ourselves in Him. If He did it would ruin us. It would almost certainly become an idol.

It would become our source of fulfillment, satisfaction and happiness. This would not only be sinful, but emotionally unhealthy. Anytime we NEED something outside of ourselves to be happy, we are unhealthy.

And God insists that we arrive at the place of emotional health where we don’t need anything other than what He has already given us, to be happy. He can’t give us more until we get to that place.

God can only be assured that our heart’s desire won’t lead to further unhealthiness when we are delighting ourselves in Him. This is not for His benefit, but for ours.

To read another post related to The Desire of your Heart and the Desire for God: The Link, see The Fool and His Many Blows.