I do only what I see the Father doing (II) Delighting

In Psalm 37:4 we read “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Giving us the desires of our heart is not a blank check, it requires we “delight ourselves also in the Lord.” Actually when our desires are wrong because we forget His ways and then our desires flow out of our lusts, He may still “give us our requests, but bring leanness to our souls” (Psalm 105:13 - 15 NKJV). You don’t want to go down that road! On the other hand there is both provision and protection when we “delight ourselves also" in Him. It is not just that when we do this, our desires are right, although this is certainly true. But it is also that when we do these things (see below), we are tapping into His heart, we start to see what are His desires, and His desires becomes our desires. In this way in the intimacy of His embrace we, like Jesus, naturally start doing what He is doing too!

The “also” in this verse reminds us that we need to ask ourselves what else do we need to do in order to fulfill the conditions of this promise. In the end it boils down to following Him who is the way the Truth and the life (John 14:6). The conditions then include not fretting (verses 1, 7,8); trusting in the Lord, doing good and feeding on His faithfulness (verse 3); committing our way unto the Lord - as in not being double minded, giving it all to Him and then taking it back. The Hebrew gives the sense of casting all your cares and burdens upon Him (verse 5). It also includes resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him (verse 7), and finally ceasing from anger and forsaking wrath (verse 8). No problem right?

I am reminded of something from the introduction to twelve step programs, namely that “half measures profited us nothing.” We are called to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). I have come to realize that there has to be no-one more miserable as a half committed Christian. You have neither the joy nor the peace that comes with intimacy with God, and you can’t even enjoy your sin (been there!). On the other hand, there is nothing more fulfilling than partnering with the Living God in the bringing in of the Kingdom, and seeing His and your heart desires coming to fruition.

Father, I want to come against the lie we have so often believed, that if we give You our all we will somehow miss out. So help us this morning Father to practice delighting ourselves in You in all of the above ways, so that our desires might be right, and so that we may progressively come to see what You are doing, and to do it with You in Jesus Name Amen