Receiving My Heart’s Desire

Psalm 21: 1 – 13

Receiving my heart’s desire

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1 The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! 2 You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah 3 For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. 4 He asked life from You, and You gave it to him—Length of days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him. 6 For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. 7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. 8 Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. 9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. 10 Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men. 11 For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot which they are not able to perform. 12 Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces. 13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.

A verse that most Christians enjoy to read and then memorize is Psalm 37: 4 that says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

The great challenge of prayer for any person is to be granted the desires of their heart. It is requesting Almighty God to grant us what has been our prime concern.

If you have ever tried to follow the Lord in all that you do, then you know how frustrating it is when your desires are not answered! When a sin does not budge, when a friend is not converted, when we struggle in loneliness or illness or poverty. The promises seem so powerful and reality so distant from them. The promise of this prayer and the continued practice of prayer seems empty and not worth the effort.

Prayer needs to be telling our Holy Father God about our whole-hearted desires. I have learned that whole-heartedness is essential to miraculous answers to prayer, when Peter took those first few triumphant steps on the water it was because he was whole-hearted in following Jesus. He let his whole heart lead as we read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14, “22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

James tells us that prayer is to be "without doubting" and that double-minded person "receives nothing". Most Christians struggle to get in touch with the desires of their heart to what is Jesus’ will.

It’s like there are several layers of confusion, for me there is the layer of mental confusion, anxiety and intellectual doubt - the area of the plausible and the implausible, the possible and the impossible, thinking ‘I don't think that can happen. That is the outer layer.