Our Heart’s Desire

Our Heart’s Desire

Psalm 37

God is far more interested in what lies within our heart than all the externals we try to add, that is, our image. And if we’re honest about it we’re more interested in the image we project, because we think it covers up what’s really going on inside.

In this world we live in, image is everything. Dressing for success and conveying a positive impression are what people are most concerned with rather than overhauling our hearts.

Consider the story of O. J. Simpson. Seeing he’ll soon be released from prison, this might be a good opportunity to review His story. His is the quintessential story of success. Simpson grew up in the ghetto and was often in trouble. But the one thing he could do well is run.

His High School coach got a hold of him and started him in the right direction, and although he didn’t make the grades to get into college, his atheism got him into junior college where he broke most junior college football records.

Eventually he got into USC and became an All-American, winning the coveted Heisman trophy. The Buffalo Bills then drafted him. He was the first player to ever rush for more then 2,000 yards in a single season. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was in several movies, was football commentator, and the face of Hertz Rental Car.

But in 1994 He was arrested for murder, and while he was acquitted he was found guilty in a civil court. Later he was arrested and convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping.

What you might say is that the image didn’t live up to the reality.

We need to be more concerned with what’s inside our hearts than the image we project.

Today I’d like to explore what the Bible says how it’s God’s desire to give us the desires of our hearts, and that may well be because it’s out of the heart that the issues of life happen.

Read Psalm 37:1-11

Notice that in our passage King David tells us three times not to fret. Now “fret” is not a word that is used that often, if ever. You just don’t hear people say, “Why fretist thou?” But if we put this in our modern day language we’d say, “Why are you getting so frustrated?”

Life is frustrating, which is something I think we all can agree with. We all have these longings and desires, but due to life’s circumstances they aren’t coming out the way we hoped or wanted. And these unfulfilled desires foster frustrations.

Solomon said,

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12 NKJV)

And here in our passage King David said,

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 NKJV)

But with everything that goes on in this life, all the problems and frustrations, this is where our faith then meets the promises of God.

We know as believers we’re to trust in verses like this, but for the most part behind our smiling faces and exterior images lays a frustrated interior of unfulfilled desires.

So how are we to reconcile that God wants to give to us the desires of our hearts, but we haven’t yet received them. It may just be found in the next two verses.

“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:5 NKJV)

But what is God going to bring to pass?

“He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” (Psalm 37:6 NKJV)

God will give us the desires of our hearts when we delight ourselves in Him rather than in what the world has to offer, and commit ourselves to fully follow Him.

God will give us the desires of our hearts when the desires of our hearts match His, that is, when it brings forth righteousness and justice.

God will give us the desires of our hearts when the desire of our hearts are in accordance with God’s purpose in making a kingdom impact.

There was a young soldier who was injured in the Civil War and was crippled for the rest of his life.

This soldier wrote,

• I asked for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might obey.

• I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

• I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise.

• I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.