Delighting is an Action Verb
One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 37:4 — “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Those words mean that when we delight in God and His goodness, He promises that He GIVES us those desires.
“Delight” means bringing pleasure to someone and, no doubt, when we DELIGHT in God, yielding our lives to Him, His favor will come our way!
It is true for you and me, too. I remember when my Carl “delighted” in the Sunday meal I prepared for him of pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions – so much so that he said: “I love this meal so much. It makes me want to eat it all the time. Will you marry me?”
Yes, that was his proposal and within a second, I said “YES”! And since marrying this precious man, I have found that man’s heart is so tender towards me that he delights in me. And it draws this woman closer and closer to that man. This is a similar way we delight in God.
Lest what I say here leads you to think that delighting in God is a ploy to get our heart’s desires, it is not. God is the Giver of the desires that please Him.
Reflecting back BC (before Carl), I was crushing widowhood. I was NEVER a disheartened, desperate-for-love widow. I carried on delighting in my singleness for thirteen years after my beloved late husband passed. I was in a deep love affair with my Lord – thus these blogs He and I wrote daily.
But, one day I started having a DESIRE for male companionship now and then. I had lots of “sisterhood” friends, but I started desiring and even said to God, “I would appreciate having a man friend!” It wasn’t a desperate cry of “Lord, I need a man!” NO! NO!
I learned that when I was “delighting” in God, HE was placing in me new desires in my heart. Read that scripture again. “Delight yourself in the Lord and HE WILL GIVE YOU the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4). So how do we know if the desires of our hearts are God’s desires for us?
I had been taking pleasure and delighting in my Lord. I was spending sweet times with Him. I was seeking Him with all my heart. Previously, I had the desire to move to Austin. Where did that desire come from? It came from “delighting in my Lord”. My “delighting” became my mode of operation that continues today.
How do we know those desires that we have are God’s desire for us? God will give us peace about it. I had that peace. The peace that passes all understanding isn’t mental. It’s spiritual.
I know this. If the desire that we have in our heart is not of God, then we will have no peace in our spirit about it. The Holy Spirit will not allow us to have peace about doing something that is not of God.
So, how do we know if the desires of our hearts are from God? We have peace in our spirit to truly know if it’s of God or not. No peace. No God. Know peace. Know God. I pray God gives YOU, the desires of YOUR heart as you delight in Him.