The Desires of Our Hearts

When reading the Bible, I often think to myself... "Now what? How do I practically apply that to my life?" It is so important to read, mediate, and study the Scriptures, but I think the most important part is actually DOING what we learn.

I read Psalm 37:3-4 this morning and began taking notes. I process ideas best through writing. I hope something in this strikes a cord in you as it did for me.

Trust in the Lord and do good,

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I looked up multiple translations to get a wider picture of these verses. I then broke it down line by line to really dig into practical application.

• Trust in the Lord

Sounds simple enough. Most of us would say, “Yes I trust God.”  I would say that I do. But the Amplified version made me ask myself a couple of questions - Do I lean on God? Do I rely on Him? Am I confident in Him? I followed those questions up with - Do my actions prove that I trust Him? Yikes. The reality is, often times I try to control situations. I strive and do things through my own strength. I force open doors instead of waiting on God to open them. When I do those things I am saying with my actions "I don't trust you God."

Stick with me. Grace upon grace. I am not condemning myself or anyone reading this. I am simply trying to dig into Scripture and learn from it.

• and do good,

One translation says “do what is right!” We overcomplicate things don’t we? What if we just spent our days doing good and doing what was right. I am not talking about striving, trying to prove or earn anything. I am talking about doing good things that are right in front of you – do something nice for your spouse, play with your kids, be kind to your co-workers, look strangers in the eye, smile and say hi.  I think we can all agree it is not that hard or complicated to do good.

• dwell in the land

The Hebrew word for dwell is, shakan. It means to settle down and to abide. I read commentary that said dwell means "feed on truth.” What if we open our Bibles daily? What if we feed on the truth God has given us? What if we learn what Jesus meant when he said abide in me and I in you in John 15:4?

• and enjoy safe pasture.

Other versions say things like: cultivate faithfulness, feed on faithfulness, practice being faithful, maintain your integrity!

What if we PRACTICED being faithful? What if we maintained our integrity?

Integrity by the way means: adherence to moral and ethical principles. Truthfully, my first thought was, "Yes, but we live in a world where it is hard to tell what is actually moral and ethical." Fortunately though, God gave us a book to tell us ;)

So what would happen if we did all of these things? If we trusted God by not trying to control everything. If we opened our Bibles every day to learn what God thinks is good, and we did it.

The next verse tells us what would happen…

• THEN you will take delight in the Lord.

When reading this verse, my first thought was “what does delighting in the Lord mean?” That question was answered in the verses above. Delighting in the Lord means: trusting him, doing good, abiding in him, and practicing faithfulness.

Keep reading... here comes the best part!

• he will give you the desires of your heart.

I don’t know about you, but I want God to give me the desires of my heart! When we actually trust God, do good, abide, and practice faithfulness, something truly amazing starts to happen... Our desires change from ours to HIS. Stephanie's desires are small and selfish. God's desires are immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. They not only fill me, but they fill others as well. His desires are good, pure, and perfect. Those are the desires I want.

Now, take a minute to let this sink in - all of that came from TWO verses of Scripture! Imagine what we could learn if we opened our Bibles every day. Imagine what God could do in and through us if his Words were our filter every day…

Francis Chan was one of the speakers in Washington DC this past weekend. He said the following, “We spend too much time trying to explain His Word, instead of trembling at His Word.” I just spent a lot of time explaining His Word. Lets take some time trembling at it. We hold the very words of God, how amazing is that?!?

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12 

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17