And He Will Give You the Desires of Your Heart

We are asked in God’s word to make our desires known to Him. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In Psalm 37:4, David says, “delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” But in other places, God’s word says things like, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick...(Jeremiah 17:9)” and then we see in James 1:15 that, “desire when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” What can we make of this? Why does it seem like God is asking for us to make our desires known, but then telling us that they’re wicked?

Any desire, when not submitted under the will and authority of God, is sinful. Having desires isn’t wrong in and of themselves, but we MUST offer them up to God with open hands.

The verse in psalm 37 is also often misunderstood. What we must realize is that when we are truly delighting in the Lord, nothing will please and satisfy us like the fulfillment of His will, His law. When we truly delight in the Lord, He, and the things of Him, will become our desires. But we can never get there on our own. Our hearts ARE deceitful and desperately wicked, and it’s only by the softening of the Holy Spirit that we can be changed. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” The only way we can know God’s will, is by opening the ears of our hearts to the beckoning of the Holy Spirit, and studying deep into God’s Word, which we will understand and be changed by through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also said that, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells in you and will be in you (John 14:15-17).”

It is by God’s mercy that we have been delivered through Jesus, and so we must plead for His way and not our own. His kingdom, not ours. His will, not mine. We won’t ever be perfect in this...I know I’m not. But He gives more grace (see James 4:6). We must ask God, like David in Psalm 5:8, “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness...” to store His word in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him (see Psalm 119:11). We must plead, like in Psalm 139:23, “search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”

Only when we delight in His word can we live rightly before Him, and our desires be pleasing to Him. Pray that we would have a heart willing to be searched. Willing to be molded into the likeness of Christ. Pray that our leaders and those around our country would soften their hearts to the call of the Holy Spirit. That we would be a people that are sensitive to God’s Word and his will. Seek Christ today, friends! In Jesus, there is peace with God! In the Lord we may have fullness of joy (see Psalm 16:11)!