Anyone out there want something or need something from God today?  Too often our prayers are more about what we need God to do in our lives than asking for wisdom or simply exalting Him as our Lord.  We could talk all day about the prayer life of a Christian and what that should look like, but that is not the purpose of today. I simply want to say that God is a good Father and He wants to give you the desires of your heart.  He wants to do that for you! He wants to! Let’s look at our Verse of the Day:

Psalms 37:4

4 Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

(NIV)

I told you that He wants to give you the desires of your heart.  Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. If our heart is corrupt, He is not going to give us our corrupt desires.  The devil might be glad to give us those things that look good but will destroy us, but God is never going to do that. But when we begin to delight in the Lord, our heart is changed.  Our desires are changed. We begin to want those things that are good for us that will help us to be healthy, wise, and prosper. God loves to give good gifts to His children. But we must delight ourselves in Him.  And what does it mean to ‘delight.’

The word ‘delight’ comes from an original word that means pliable.  To be physically pliable is to be flexible or easily bent. To be mentally pliable is to be easily influenced.  God wants to give us the desires of our heart, but we must be easily influenced by Him. When we fight God in what He asks us to do, we are not pliable.  We are not delighting. Delight is also an emotion, a state of the heart. To delight in the Lord and pliable is to be excited about doing things God’s way.  Are you excited about doing things God’s way? Now…before you answer, think about your life. Are there areas of your life where you are not handling things the way God would desire?  Are there areas of your life where you are handing things God’s way, but you are not real happy about it.

Giving is a great example.  The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.  This means there are grouchy givers as well. If you are giving to the Lord, but you are grouchy about it, don’t expect to receive anything from the Lord.  There is no delight in grouchiness 🙂

To be able to delight in the Lord in the hard things such as giving, forgiving, prayer, fellowship with the body (church), we must have faith that truly believes that God’s way is best and any other way stinks like a teenage boy’s gym locker.

It is not easy to do so you may ask how you can get to that place of delighting in the Lord even in the hard places.  Well the answer is not going to be something pleasant, but here it is. You force yourself to do what God is asking you to do and you force your mouth to only speak positively.  Of course, on the inside you might be feeling the total opposite. But if you can muster up the strength to do what God has called you to do, you will soon see the results of that in your own life.  Once you have seen the results a few times, you will begin to truly delight yourself in the Lord.

Leave me a comment.  Is there any place where you delight in the Lord?  Is there any place you struggle?

Live Blessed and Be a Blessing!

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