Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
Jeremiah said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick" (17:9). With that description, you can imagine what the heart is capable of desiring. Delighting in what the world offers will only temporarily satisfy those desires and will sicken your heart even more. But if you delight in the Lord, your desires will change. I believe this process unfolds as we seek to do God's will.
I had very little desire to read until I came to Christ. Now I read volumes. After I received Christ, I wanted to serve Him full time. I had completed engineering school and was preparing to do anything God wanted - except go back to school. But within a year, I could hardly wait to get to seminary. It was the best educational experience of my life and the only one I enjoyed up to that point. Since then I have finished four more degrees. If we delight in the Lord, He changes our desires!
We struggle between the desires of the flesh and the desires of righteousness. Jesus told us, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6). Do you believe that? I guarantee that if you try to satisfy the desires of the flesh, you will never satisfy them. The more you feed them, the greater the hunger.
When we first come to Christ, nothing contests our will more than the lusts of the flesh: "For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, and Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another" (Galatians 5:17). Our will is like a toggle switch, but it's initially spring-loaded to the flesh. As we delight in the Lord, it becomes spring-loaded to the Spirit.
Let’s Pray:
My heart's desire, Father, is to be totally responsive to You and to delight in whatever gives You glory.
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.
