Will God Really Give Me My Heart’s Desires?

Posted On May 23, 2021

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4 ESV

The Promise

When I was a kid I wanted superpowers. I prayed and prayed, hoping God would give me the ability to fly or move things with my mind or run really fast. I knew He had the ability to do anything, so I figured He could do this for me if He wanted to. But, alas, He never did. So what’s the deal? Why does He promise to give us the desires of our heart when we know from experience that we can’t always get what we want? The key is the first part of this verse: “Delight yourself in the Lord . . . .”

“David calls us to take delight in the Lord and to commit everything we have and do to him. But how do we do this? To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy being with that person. This happens only when we know that person well. Thus, to delight in the Lord, we must know him better. Knowledge of God’s great love for us will indeed give us delight.”

Chronological Life Application Study Bible

So before we receive the promise in the second part of the verse, we must obey the command in the first part. Before He will give us the desires of our heart, we must delight ourselves in the Lord. We’ve got to start there. We must learn to find joy and happiness by drawing close to our heavenly Father.

The Command

“Discover the purest source of happiness, the love of God. . . . Does he love us because of our goodness? Because of our kindness? Because of our great devotion? No, he loves us because of his goodness, kindness, and great devotion. . . . The reason God loves you is that he has chosen to love you. . . . Let this love happen in your life. Let this love give birth to the greatest joy: ‘I am beloved by heaven.'”

Max Lucado, Happy Today

Our main goal in life should be to get to know God and find our joy in His presence. When we let it really sink in how much He loves us and cares for us — not because we deserve it, but because He chooses to — we will be filled with a joy that is not dependent on our circumstances. We will find happiness in the One who will never let us down. We can’t experience this kind of joy apart from Him. In her book Life in His Presence: A Jesus Calling Guided Journal, Sarah Young writes from God’s point of view, lovingly instucting us on the best way to live:

“True Joy is a by-product of living in My Presence. Therefore you can experience it in palaces, in prisons . . . anywhere. Do not judge a day as devoid of Joy just because it contains difficulties. Instead, concentrate on staying in communication with Me. Many of the problems that clamor for your attention will resolve themselves. Other matters you must deal with, but I will help you with them. If you make problem solving secondary to the goal of living close to Me, you can find Joy even in your most difficult days.”

Sarah Young, Life in His Presence

I have found this to be true in my life. On difficult days, after I have poured out my heart to God, I immediately feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that He is there. Just His presence makes everything better. And when I let go of problems that are out of my control, I find that He takes care of them for me, often in amazing, unexpected ways. I am still learning how to find my joy in the Lord, so I’m no expert, not yet. But I don’t think it means that we won’t still feel sad or anxious sometimes. I think what it means is that our underlying sense of Spirit-empowered joy should outweigh any temporary, earthly feelings we experience. Joy in the Lord is like the ocean. Compared to it, our problems are just tiny droplets.

The Commitment

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”

Psalm 37:5 ESV

Psalm 37:4 offers us a promise and a command: The Lord promises to give us the desires of our heart when we learn to find our joy in Him. The next verse tells us how the Lord fulfills this promise: Commit to Him, trust in Him, and He will act. God will lead us to the wonderful gifts He has in store for us when we trust Him and commit our lives to Him.

“To commit ourselves to the Lord means entrusting everything — our lives, families, jobs, possessions — to his control and guidance. To commit ourselves to the Lord means to trust in him (Ps 37:5), believing that he can care for us better than we can ourselves. We should be willing to wait patiently (Ps 37:7) for him to work out what is best for us.”

Chronological Life Application Bible

God planned the good works He wants us to do long before we were ever born, and He promises to give us everything we need to do them. This means the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe designed our lives before we were even alive. Wow! When I take a moment to think about that, it blows my mind. He has wonderful things in store for each one of us, more than we could possibly imagine.

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Ephesians 3:20 NLT

All we need to do is stay close to Him and let Him lead us to the amazing things He has planned for our lives. Jesus promised not just to give us life, but to give us life “abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV). God wants us to be happy. He wants us to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. We do this by living in His presence, committing ourselves to Him, and trusting Him to lead us.

“Long before the days of Jesus, King David wrote psalms that help us understand God’s will and character. Psalm 37 is one of them, reminding us that He’s not a bare-minimum Father. He’ll more than meet your needs — stay close to Him, and He’ll bless you more than you can imagine.”

The Weekly Gratitude Project

The Desires of My Heart

“If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him”

James 1:5 TLB

Now, wait a minute! We started this discussion with God’s promise to give me the desires of my heart, my heart, not His. What if I still want my superpowers? Am I supposed to learn to forget about my own desires in favor of God’s desires for my life? Well, yes and no. If I ignore the command to delight myself in the Lord and I refuse to commit my life to Him, then my desires will probably not be aligned with His and they shouldn’t be trusted. I won’t be able to fly like Superman no matter how much I pray for it. However, if I obey God’s command to find my joy in Him and if I trust Him to lead my life, I will find that my desires begin to match His. And I will find that my main desire is to seek Him and hear His voice. The best way to do this is to spend time in prayer and in His Word every day.

“Save your best striving for seeking My Face. I am constantly communicating with you. To find Me and hear My voice, you must seek Me above all else. Anything that you desire more than Me becomes an idol. When you are determined to get your own way, you blot Me out of your consciousness. Instead of single-mindedly pursuing some goal, talk with Me about it. Let the Light of My Presence shine on this pursuit so that you can see it from My perspective. If the goal fits into My plans for you, I will help you reach it. If it is contrary to My will for you, I will gradually change the desire of your heart. Seek Me first and foremost; then the rest of your life will fall into place, piece by piece.”

Sarah Young, Life in His Presence

If I let Him, God not only guides my life, He guides my desires. I actually made a list of my desires the other day to see if this is really true. I told myself not to think about what I “should” want but about what I truly desire for my life. Here are a few of the things I wrote: “I want my faith to keep growing, I want to learn how to love and serve others with kindness and forgiveness, I want to develop and display the fruit of the Spirit, I want to be a light in the world.” Whoa! Even I was surprised when I read the list. That wasn’t all of it, but you get the idea. One of my most consistent prayers over the past couple of years has been, “Please give me wisdom and strength to do Your will.” James 1:5 promises that God will give us wisdom if we ask for it. Philippians 2:13 assures us “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (NLT). This means we can begin to trust the desires in our heart:

“When we submit to God’s plans, we can trust our desires. Our assignment is found at the intersection of God’s plan and our pleasures. What do you love to do? What brings you joy? What gives you a sense of satisfaction? . . . Each of us has been made to serve God in a unique way. . . . The longings of your heart, then, are not incidental; they are critical messages. The desires of your heart are not to be ignored; they are to be consulted. As the wind turns the weather vane, so God uses your passions to turn your life. God is too gracious to ask you to do something you hate.”

Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment

The Superpowers

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”

Acts 1:8 NIV

Some of the things I wanted before I committed myself to Christ aren’t so appealing anymore. For example, I have lost my desire to fly like Superman. But as it turns out, my desire for superpowers wasn’t so far-fetched after all. God gives us access to His supernatural power through His Spirit. All believers are given the gift of the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ. We are promised in Philippians 4:13 the power to do all things through His strength. Jesus said in John 14:12 we would have the power to do the works He did and even greater things. We also have direct access to our heavenly Father, the source of this power:

“When we talk to God, he listens. We may not be in control, but we are not powerless. For this reason, even when our lives take a turn for the worse, we can find joy in knowing that God is watching us and listening to us. He is at work in our lives, and with the power of prayer, we can work with him.”

Max Lucado, Happy Today

Through the Holy Spirit we are given wisdom to know God’s will and the supernatural power we need to do it. As we find joy in His presence and trust Him to guide us on our journey, He gives us everything we need to join Him in His work. Along the way, He loves to delight us and surprise us with the gifts He planned for us long ago. But if we don’t follow Him, we may miss out. Following Christ means following Him to the desires of our heart . . . and so much more.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

John 15:7 NIV

This week’s Scripture passages remind us that anything is possible when we seek the Lord with all our heart. God wants to bless us abundantly. He has amazing gifts for us that He planned before we were born. When we obey Him, we can be confident He will lead us to them and fulfill the desires of our heart.

“May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!”

Psalm 20:4 ESV

References:

• Chronological Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012.
• Lucado, Max. Grace for the Moment: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year. J. Countryman, 2000.
• Lucado, Max. Happy Today: A Guided Journal to Genuine Joy. Thomas Nelson, 2019.
• The Weekly Gratitude Project: A Challenge to Journal, Reflect, and Grow a Grateful Heart. Zondervan, 2020.
• Young, Sarah. Life in His Presence: A Jesus Calling Guided Journal. Thomas Nelson, 2020.

Images:

• Heart Ripples featured image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
• Heart Moon image by Thanks for your Like • donations welcome from Pixabay
• Ocean Heart image by StockSnap from Pixabay
• Book Heart image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay
• Heart Fence image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
• Fire Heart image by Gloria Williams from Pixabay
• Heart Tree image by Comfreak from Pixabay