Our Heart’s Desire

Solomon said that living a life of pleasure, prestige, and power will only end up being utterly and totally useless and without meaning.

“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV)

Any other life than a life lived for God will ultimately fail and lead to frustration. Only a life lived in the Lord will succeed in the end, and for our end.

Conclusion

In Psalm 37, David gives us four life lessons to apply to the frustrations that come in life. But he doesn’t leave us there. He takes it a step further and gives us three disciplines that will see us past life’s contradictions and into a life of peace, even though the storms rage around us.

And while we already looked at these, I think it’s important we review them once again.

A. Trust in the Lord

While this involves not only our past and future, it’s in the present that we have the most difficulty. But think about it, if we believe that God took care of our sins upon the cross and that heaven awaits us in the future, then why can’t we trust in God for our “today.”

Now I don’t know all the answers to what’s going on in your life, but what I do know is the One who does, and that is the Lord. What I know is that while the situation we find ourselves are frustrating because it seems like nothing is changing, but we can still trust God with our lives because He will do what is right, and what is good.

B. Delight in the Lord

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, then He will not only begin to work on our desires, but will give us a whole new set of desires, that is, His.

God places in our hearts the desires He wants us to have, and when we delight ourselves in Him, then He will give us these desires freely, holding nothing back.

C. Commit to the Lord

We need to commit our ways to God. There will always be problems and difficult situations, but we need to learn to trust God and commit our ways to Him in the midst of whatever we’re going through.

Such was the case of John Hus, a Christian reformer in the 1400’s. He was burned at the stake because He refused a final plea for him to renounce his faith.

If I were to break down Hus’s last words were it would be, “What I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood.”

Hus died, but its recorded that they had a hard time keeping the fire lit, maybe it was because they tried to fuel it with his manuscripts. As he was about to die he said, “Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.”

These disciplines of trusting God, delighting ourselves in Him, and committing our ways to Him are straightforward, and through them God will not only work on our desires, but He will work within our circumstances.

It is then that we’ll begin to discover God’s peace, and that God will give us the desires of our hearts, or shall I say, His heart.