Graceful Waiting Series

A. The Bible teaches that we are to be overcomers in every arena of life. That means that we are in a fight. The Bible’s says you’re going to have to fight the good fight in order to lay hold on eternal life.

B. The term “eternal life” means more than the “timelessness of eternity” when we go to heaven. When a person becomes born again, they have laid hold on an aspect of eternal life. But that’s not where the fight is. W.E.Vines says the word Zoë means “eternal life,” as in the “God kind of life.” Our fight is a fight of faith to lay hold on a higher quality of life on earth—life as God has it, without disease, oppression, insufficiency.

C. Now that we know what the fight is about, the next thing we need to know is where the fight lies and how we appropriate the provisions of our covenant. Psalm 37:4 shows us how to fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold on eternal life. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

D. This verse speaks about desire. Human desire is the primary motivator of all human behavior. The things you do consistently reflect the strongest desires that operate within you. Therefore, if you want to change your life, you must change your desire. God is saying if you “delight yourself in Him,” He will change wrong desire and replace it with right desire. It’s at this point that your life can begin progressing down the path of His will and blessing.

E. A changed life is what the fight of faith is all about—becoming a light in the darkness of this world, becoming the salt of the earth, tapping into God’s covenant provision, living your life as a written epistle of God’s goodness and provision.

F. The most basic way to perceive God’s will for your life is to listen to the desires of your heart when you’ve been delighting yourself in the Him, because those desires will orient your life down the path of His will.

G. Let’s talk about what it means to delight. The Hebrew word for delight simply means “take pleasure in.” But I find the best way to define a term is to find other places in the Word where it’s used. Psalm 1:1-2 says Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly … 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (KJV)

H. To delight in something means you focus your attention upon it. The word meditate is actually defined as “imagination.” In other words, the Word of God begins to shape your imagined future experiences of life. You delight yourself in the Lord by allowing what His Word says about you to begin shaping your perception of reality.

I. Reality isn’t what the secular mindset has to say. Reality is defined by the Word of God. To the extent that the Word begins to shape your perception of reality, that is the extent He can change the desires of your heart.

J. What do you think about the most? According to the Word, that’s what you’re delighting in. Is your focus mostly on your children? your hobby? your job? If you focus on these things more than you do the Word, then you can’t rely on the desires of your heart because they will be carnal desires and they’ll take you down the wrong path and it’ll bring cursing to you instead of blessing.

K. When you delight in the Lord by filling your mind with His Word, the desires within you will be God given and they’ll take you down the path of His will and blessing.

L. Now let’s read Psalms 37:5; Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass (KJV). He’s going to bring to pass the desire that He’s birthed within you. For instance, when you discover that healing is part of the atoning work of Christ and that it’s God’s will for you to be healed, it will produce a desire within you to be healed. God will fulfill that desire to be healed.

M. Bringing the promise of God to pass in our lives is where the fight of faith lies. There are three keys in this process: delight, commit, and trust. We just talked about the first key, which is to keep your thinking oriented upon God’s Word so He can create right desire within you.

N. The second key in the fight of faith is “committing thy way unto the Lord.” God and His Word are one. Committing thy way unto the Lord is the same as saying “committing to live your life by the standard of God’s Word.”