He Will Give You the Desires of Your Heart, Or Will He?
Read the passage in the picture. I found this on SkitGuys Instagram. It caught my attention because Psalm 37:4 is one of the most often quoted verses in the Bible, and it often has seemed to be used out of context. It fits in with the “Prosperity Gospel” theme, or simply the “Evangelical Christian who thinks if she loves God, He will give her a wonderful husband and nice house and comfy life” theme.
But what jumped out at me when I saw this picture were all the circled words. Look at these: Trust, Dwell, Delight, Commit, Rest. This idea that God will give us the desires of our hearts is conditional. But it’s not conditional on us being good people; it’s conditional on our hearts. Can we actually trust God? Are we dwelling with Him, “feeding on His faithfulness”? Have we committed our whole way of life to Him? Can we actually rest in the Lord?
These are tough questions for some of us. This is not a checklist of
Go to church
Read your Bible
Pray
Tithe
Have an accountability partner
You can do all those things without really dwelling with God or trusting Him. And God is clear about how He got tired of the Israelites making their sacrifices and going to Temple, but missing the important points of His Word.
This is not a verse about handing a Santa Claus God your wishlist. These verbs listed here focus on deeper things. But the end result is that our hearts will be lined up with God. So if we delight in the Lord, the desires of our hearts will line up with His.
I’m all for pouring out our hearts and telling God all our desires and presenting them to Him, but keep in mind that this verse is couched in Trust and Commit and Dwell and Delight and Rest. It’s about the Spirit making us more like God so we think like Him and want what He wants.
