Directing Our Desires
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)
With out a doubt, we all have desires. The question is: What kind of desires do we have? Are they worldly desires? Desires that are of the flesh? Or are they the right kind of desires? Godly desires that please the Lord at all times? As we can see, there are two sides to this coin.
James asks a direst question concerning our worldly desires, that really state how destructive they can be. In James 4:1, he writes: "Where do wars and fights come from you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?" I would say that the big difference between the worldly desires and the godly desires., is that our worldly desires stem from an attitude of "selfishness" Our thoughts are not on the needs of others, but only on ourselves.
And of course, right in line with our modern society, we have wars and fights. So much so that as James goes on to say: "You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight, an war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2) How sad, and how destructive!
So the question comes, how can we have godly desires? The key is found in the beginning of verse 1. "Delight also in the Lord." It begins with how we feel about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do we love Him with all of our heart? Is it a priority with us to find our joy, peace, and contentment through Him? Do we long to be obedient, and pleasing to Him, by living for Him, and being a blessing to others, as He is a blessing to us?
If we do, then the promise is that the Lord will give us "the desires of our heart." The right kind of desires, that will lead to the peace, joy, and satisfaction we are all longing for. In so doing, a blessing we will be, and very blessed we will become, now and for all eternity! GP
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