Delight and Desire part 1
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4). Seems pretty straightforward, right? If I delight myself in the Lord then He will give me what I want. Come on guys. That's the Old Covenant in a nutshell. "Do good and be rewarded." On this side of the cross we've moved out of good and evil (the tree of death) and into life (the Tree of Life). Also... it doesn't say IF or THEN. It says AND. That's key. Because delighting yourself in the Lord IS the desire of your heart! So when you do one you're actually doing both. You're not delighting yourself in Him in order to get anything. You're delighting yourself in Him because He has already given you the desire of you heart. And He did that when He gave you... Himself. We seem to have such a twisted view of things when it comes to "blessings." Generally speaking, we seem to think of blessings as stuff. And I'm not saying it can't involve stuff. But I once heard a preacher say, "YOU are the stuff that everybody wants." And the reason for that is... the "stuff" that everybody wants... the desire of the HEART... is love. That's what we all want. That's what our heart desires. And that's what God gave us. That's who God is. So, really, delighting in Him is not getting anything. Delighting in Him is experiencing and enjoying what we already have. Because make no mistake: God loves you. He always has and He always will. And because of the finished work of the cross--because He has given us His Holy Spirit--we are now equipped and empowered to receive and release His love. He's always loved us, we just didn't know it or believe it. And now that we DO know and believe the love of Christ... now we CAN delight ourselves in Him. Check it out: If you thought God didn't love you... would you really be able to delight yourself in Him? Even if you hoped that someday, if you delighted yourself enough, He would love you? I don't think so. Fake it 'til you make it does not work. In order to delight ourselves in Him we have to have something to be delighted about. That's my problem with the way a lot of the "church world" prays. It's like they're going to Daddy begging for a handout. As if it's not His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. As if He hasn't already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. As if He hasn't already blessed us with all spiritual blessings. He gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. What else could we possibly need or want? Stuff? Well, He's got that covered too. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus addresed our need for "stuff." And the conclusion He came to was, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). But again, not seeking in order to find something you do have. But seeking to explore and experience what you DO have. And besides, "stuff" isn't the desire of your heart. Love is. And when we delight in Him we experience and explore, receive and release, enjoy and share, the love of God. The love that IS God!