Psalm 37:4 (NIV) Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

A desire is something that you long for and many times, that longing turns into a craving. Desires are not wrong in and of themselves. But they become very problematic and even harmful when mixed with our sinful nature. We, by default, crave the wrong things. Even when it comes to what we eat, we usually desire what is not good for us. The things that are good for us to eat usually do not appeal to us. That’s just food, but wrong desires in other categories can bring about our downfall.

That’s why you have to look twice at the verse above because it is many times the desires of your heart that get you into a lot of trouble. After all, the Word of God does say that the heart is deceitful and beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9). So why would God tell us that He will give us the desires of our hearts? Take note that there is a very important caveat before God’s promise to give us what our hearts desire. What precedes the promise is the instruction to take delight in the Lord. But in order to take delight in Him, we have to know what that means. First and foremost, it means to value God above what God gives you, which translates to valuing the Giver a lot more than the gifts that He gives. It would be a sad state of affairs if at Christmastime, when gift-giving is in its highest season, people would value what they get more than the people who give them the gifts. We would find that to be unacceptable. But when it comes to the Lord, we many times unknowingly crave what the Lord can give us more than we desire Him. That throws everything off as far as our desires go. That’s when we begin to crave things that are not good for us. The reason for that is that God is the one who keeps our sinful nature in check. Although we died to our sinful nature when we received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we need to die daily or we will revert back to our sinful ways, which leads to sinful desires.

The only safe and blessed way for us to have what we want is to want God above all else. When that happens, then our desires and wants change. They come in line with what God wants for us, which is not only safe but incredibly good all the time. Let your desire be for the Lord Jesus and then what you desire will not only be safe, but will lead to blessings for you and for those around you. By the way, desiring Jesus is the greatest and most satisfying desire you can ever have. Everything else will pale in comparison!

Pastor Joey Vazquez