Before I get into today's post, I have an announcement to make. Nan over at MomstheWord is having a contest for a free blog makeover. Nan's got a great blog, and if you want to join in her contest, click here. Now on to today's post.
We have a monthly ladies' Bible study at our church that runs from September through May. Each year we try to do a study that continues from month to month, and this year we're studying how to become a prayer warrior. Studying this series has been such a blessing to me, and I wanted to share just a small part with you today.
This month we covered the fact that God wants to answer our prayers, and we talked about how to get "yes" answers to prayers. One of the verses we covered was Psalm 37:4, Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.. Most people focus on the desire part of the verse. Some people say that God will give you what you desire. Others say that God will put in your heart the desires He wants you to have. I think there's some truth on both sides, but the part we focused on in our meeting was the delight part of it.
What does it mean to delight in the Lord? Webster's dictionary defines the word delight as "taking pleasure in or satisfying greatly". So in order to claim the promise of the verse, before we focus on the desires of our heart, we need to delight in the Lord. It was challenging as we asked ourselves if we really delight in Him.
For instance, do we take great pleasure in reading our Bible daily, or is it more of a duty or obligation? Do we delight in attending church where we can worship Him and learn about Him? Or are we looking for reasons to "sit this one out" when it comes to Sunday night or the Wednesday night Bible study? What about when it comes to serving Him by taking a turn in the nursery or making something for a fellowship? How much pleasure do we get out of truly serving Him? Does our relationship with the Lord satisfy us greatly, or are we uncomfortable with where we're at spiritually?
This verse is a contract with God. He says if we delight in Him, He'll give us the desires of our heart. But we have to fulfill the first part before He will fulfill the second.
So what about you? Are you delighting in the Lord today?
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Great post!
ReplyDelete-FringeGirl
Awesome post. I think we have to work at delighting in the Lord, by God's grace and not allowing ourselves to take Him for granted or get sloppy, ya know!
ReplyDeleteHmm, Jill. My husband would say, "that will preach."
ReplyDeleteThe Lord is gracious that all He asks of us it to give ourselves to Him in love. Sounds to simple and geniune.
Thanks so much for expounding on the Word. I can never get tired of growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord.
What an excellent post on this verse! I think the "prosperity people" have greatly distorted the true meaning of this verse!
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