“Take delight in
the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 NIV. This
is one of my favorite verses. I found this story online: If you take delight in
the Lord (and that’s easy to do!), He will tend to the desires of your heart.
So, does that mean He’ll give us everything we ask for in prayer? Not
necessarily. The scripture doesn’t promise that He’ll give us everything we ask
for, but it does say that He will tend to the desires of our heart. Recently, a
lady called in to a local Christian radio station to share about how she had
prayed for a couple of years about her family’s finances, their car problems,
bills they had to pay, and things her family needed. She became frustrated when
she didn’t feel that her prayers were being answered, and she found herself
upset with God. While sharing her frustrations in prayer, she felt God asking
her what she truly desired in life. She answered that her true desires were for
her children-that they would be healthy and do well in life. As she responded,
she realized that God had known what truly mattered to her and had indeed been
looking after her children. She was quite moved by this experience, especially
since it was the first time she felt God personally in her life.
This experience
changed her heart and her outlook. She began praising God as she saw the many
ways He’d been blessing her. She’d been too focused on the negatives to see the
positives. And then an amazing thing happened. As she began trusting God with
her deepest desires, He began to help her in other areas of her life. Their
financial situation has now greatly improved, as she has continued to praise
and trust Him, He has blessed her in many other ways too.
In my life, I’ve
recently received a blessing that I didn’t even ask for. I had started a Couch
to 5K program. I began running so that I can pass the PT for promotion at work.
I always do better when I have someone to workout with me who will motivate and push me to do give it my all. But, with my odd schedule of working mostly evening/night hours, it is hard to find a workout buddy who is available
when I am. But, a Facebook friend posted that she was looking for a workout
buddy to run/walk with. So, I sent her a message, and we’ve been running 4 times
in the past week. Today, while we were running, she mentioned that we should
come up with Scriptures of the week to memorize as we run. How wonderful is it
that God reunited me with a Christian runner. I didn't even know to ask for it
when I prayed. But, God knew what my heart’s desire would be. Remember, put your
trust in God in the big things and the little things. He cares about it all, and He knows us better than we know ourselves.
