Where's Your Delight?

Psalm 37:4
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

A few weeks ago, I attended the Belonging Co. and heard Alex Seeley preach. She is the lead pastor and her husband, Henry, is the primary worship leader. And even though this wasn’t the primary text, I was inspired by this word she left us with at the end.

See, more often than not, I tend to focus on the second part of the verse. I want the desires of my heart. It’s true: God is a good God who wants the best for me. And you. He wants to give us the desires of our heart.

But here’s the thing: There’s a first part to this verse. Before God will give us the desires of our heart, we must learn to take delight in him. And not SO THAT we can get what we desire; we must learn to simply enjoy him.

I want the blessings without the work.
I want the good without the fire.
I want the favor without the balance of suffering to learn what favor feels like.
I want revival without prayer.

I’m just being honest.

But what God often looks for are people who simply learn to enjoy him for himself. In other words, there’s not a need for (fill in the blank) because God is enough. Of course, we need shelter, clothing, and food. God will provide those things. But our role as worshippers is to learn to worship the one who created all the good things in the first place.

Throughout scripture, God uses the people who are already at work. They aren’t necessarily working to receive; they’re working or co-laboring with God because that’s what they feel called to do. Whether or not God comes through for them is secondary to the primary desire to simply co-labor with God and delight in Him.

So in this next season, I’m pursuing God. Period. I don’t want to lose my desires, but I don’t want them to continue to be the idol that I’ve made them out to be. As long as they are primary and learning to enjoy God simply for who he is is secondary, these desires will remain an idol.

But here and now, they are becoming secondary.

My hope is to enjoy whatever God gives me.

My desire is to learn to enjoy simply being with him.

My prayers will be less for myself and more for how God can work in the lives of others.

Rather than praying for material provision, I want to learn to be quiet before him and listen for the ways he’s shaping my heart.

And as hard as it will be at times, I want to do these things not for God to “pay me back” or “come through for me” – although I know he wants to and will – but instead to burn white hot for God because He’s greater than everything else.

When I first became a committed follower of Christ, this was my heart’s desire. But over time, secondary things can become primary things.

But no more: I’m going to delight in the Lord. Period.

Will you join me?