Heart’s Desire

          Today as I read through Psalm 37 as part of my devotionals one of the first passages as I read that stuck out to me was Psalm 37:5, but I look closer at the verse that preceded it in the light of verse 5.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.

          Really, God will give me my heart’s desire?  So if I desire that big plasma screen TV and that awesome surround sound system God will give me that?  Of course that is not what this means and we all know that.  This is a good example of taking verses out of context.  We cannot just open the Bible and try to find the single verse that fits into our situation.  We have to read the whole thing.  We have to take the Word of God and be in it daily and place it upon our hearts if we are to apply it to our lives.  This is the only way we can use it in any and every situation we run into in our lives.

          So if we read verse 5 now after reading verse 4 it sheds more light on the whole situation and we do not see this magical genie that will give us everything we desire just because we take delight in him.

Psalm 37:5 Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.

          Ah ha, commit everything we do to the Lord.  Not just some of the things we do, but everything.  So if we commit everything we do to the Lord our will lines up with His will, our desires are His desires.  We look to please Him and He looks to please us.  We were after all made in His image and the only thing that separates us now is sin.  Jesus however has made a way to get around that sin, but it still wars within us as long as we are in this world.  It is only through the Spirit of God that we have the power to fight against it.  What is your heart’s desire?  Does it line up on the side of righteousness or on the side of sin?  These are the tough questions we need to be asking ourselves on a regular basis and focus our thoughts on doing everything for the Lord.