Heart’s Desires

Published by christi on March 16, 2023

Ah, the days of yore… well maybe not that far back! Actually, I was just thinking of the days of my youth…you know, last week?

Joking aside, I came across a section in my daily reading that was an anchor for my heart in my young years. In fact, it was an answer for every longing, lonely, heartsick teenager and collegian who was trying to do what God wants with his or her life. “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  

“Aha! Here is the key to getting the. __________ I want! “ We would say. I only have to figure out how to delight myself in the LORD…. Now, if I just read my Bible and pray, go to church, and pay my tithe. . .you get the idea. A vending machine relationship with God:  I put in “X” effort and God hands me this that I want. If I am “good enough” then my life will be like a beautiful bouquet of cultivated flowers, just what I wanted!

I am sure that kind of thinking kept some of us from getting into lots of trouble, but I am not so sure that’s what God had in mind.

A slightly older version of myself understood it more like this: “Delighting myself in the LORD changes my heart’s desires so that I want what I get.”

Okay, so maybe a sculptured, curated vase of flowers isn’t really what I want… a life of fruitfulness and productivity with comfy relationships will do the trick.

Today, reading this treasured passage, I find myself asking:

Is it not more truly that the more I see in Him that delights me, the more the desires of my heart are truly satisfied? Is He not the fountain of all delights? Is He not the One for whom my heart was created, the One in whom I find absolute satisfaction?

All other satisfactions are less than complete. . .merely appetizers of the heart-feast that is my Savior!

How can I look elsewhere for my heart’s desires? A blossom on a cactus every so often would be delightful!

Still following Jesus every day in the everyday,

Christi