The Desires of Your Heart

Psalm 20:4

“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”

How awesome it is to serve a God who is above all, through all and in all, and yet… He still cares about the things in life that matter to you. It matters to Him that there are things that you want to achieve- things that you aspire to. Victories you want to experience, items you want to purchase, trips you want to take. All these things matter to Him.

God is a God of the eternal, and He is always working in accordance with His plan for mankind. Everything He allows or withholds has to do with fulfilling His purpose for you individually and for all of mankind collectively. Therefore, there are times that there are things we desire that He must say “no” or “not yet.”

Whenever we ask the Lord for something, we have to ultimately choose to line up with His divine will and purpose. But the good news is that when we walk closely with Him, we find that His will is truly what we want- we are not happy otherwise.

Sometimes I feel guilty bringing frivolous requests to Him, knowing there are others in the world with real, life-threatening needs. But I realize too, that as a mother, I care about the little things that matter to my children. And of course, we have a Father who loves so much more perfectly than we do.

A recent example of this in my life is that I had watched every episode of “Dancing with the Stars” this season and was looking forward to the final competition and the announcement of the winner. I cannot explain my fascination with the show since I do object to some of the dances and a lot of the costumes, but ultimately, I am a ballroom dancing fan. I love to see the beautiful, flowing costumes and the grace with which they glide across the floor. So you can imagine my frustration when during the championship show, the power went off, canceling the recording of the show. The next day I watched all that had recorded prior to the power outage. One of the contestants danced and went to commercial, then the power failed. The next night I came home sick with allergies and had fallen asleep unexpectedly after taking Benadryl. When I woke up, I checked the TV and to my disgust I realized that they were replaying the episode I had missed and I had slept through part of it. I hit record and left the room. Imagine my surprise when I returned to the room and realized the recording had started exactly in the same place it had stopped the night before. They were coming back from commercial to announce the scores of the couple who had danced the night before. I was moved to tears when I realized how much God loved me- that he would perfectly splice together a show I wanted to watch! Nothing in the Universe was bettered by me seeing the show, but God used this inconsequential event to show me that He really does see me and cares about what matters to me.

Through years of walking with the Lord, I have also found there are other things that are in our heart that will not impact the eternal or interfere with things He purposes. They are just little things that we enjoy, things we desire. And because He loves us, and because we find favor in His eyes, He grants us the desires of our heart. I have known people who have wanted a particular type of home and God granted that desire. I have known people who desired a baby, and God granted that desire. He loves us intimately and infinitely, won’t you trust Him today with the things dearest to you?

Dear Lord, thank you that You are the one who makes my plans succeed. You are the one who grants me the desire of my heart. Search me and cleanse me of things that I desire that are selfish and apart from Your purpose. But the desires that You have placed there, those that please You, grant them In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

Sherri