On the wall of my college dorm, I had a cute poster of a little bear skipping through a flower-filled meadow with Psalm 37:4 on it. “Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give thee the desires of thy heart.” What a promise! In other words, to my college-aged mind…”Be good, love God and He will give you what you want!”
Well, being good and loving God took some work and I was a busy girl. I went to church, prayed, coordinated a tutoring program between my college and a local housing project, worked in a soup kitchen once a month, babysat the preacher’s kids, volunteered several days a week for a year in a nursing home, didn’t litter….basically I tried to save my little part of the planet for Jesus.
Let me stop here with my resume of good deeds (especially since I now know that my righteous acts are like filthy rags) and tell you my sole motivation. Like a lot of good southern girls my age at that time, a huge but secret goal for college attendance was not to get a B.S. degree but to get a Mrs. degree.
In college I dated many nice boys and a few not-so-nice ones during my four years there, but God never seemed to bring “the one.” The first year after graduation brought countless weddings and about 7 ugly bridesmaid dresses (In fact, my mother’s attic still probably has that heap of ugly taffeta in a corner.). Invitations, birdseed and watered down punch in fellowship halls weren’t the only things that those weddings brought with them. They also brought a sense of desperation and a bit of resentment towards God. Where was my Mr. Right? Why didn’t God live up to His end of the bargain? I had lived up to my end, hadn’t I?
Let’s switch tracks here- the other day I had one of my most precious students ask me if he could help me clean up and do stuff while waiting on his bus. I agreed and I’ve got to tell you, that 6 year old boy was a dynamo. He collected pencils for me, picked up trash and pushed chairs under. He did everything I asked and even suggested other things he could do. He had the idea to stamp the date for the next day’s math journal entry in all 21 notebooks. He passed out papers and even straightened a few on my desk! He was an absolute delight! He was finishing all this work when his bus was called. Before he walked out, he came up to me and said, “Teacher, since I’ve been so good today and have done all of this extra work, don’t you have a prize for me?” I must admit, that rubbed me the wrong way a little. Here I thought this sweet, precious child was doing all of these things out of a pure motivation with love for me and his desire to serve me. Actually, he may or may not have felt that way a little but all my heart and mind heard was…”I’ve done all of this for you so what are you gonna give me?” Wow! How many times in my life have I approached God the same way? How many times does God shake His head and feel a little bit grieved?
I would like to say that through the years I have changed my interpretation of Psalm 37:4. On days when my flesh takes over I still have a tendency to list my good deeds and whine before the Lord with the “why nots and the why me’s”? I have done a little studying though about what it means to be delighted in the Lord. Between the Bible, the dictionary and the guidance of the Holy Spirit this is what I’ve come up with…
A woman who delights herself in the Lord is someone who….
*desires to know Him more each day
*finds peace, rest, and comfort in His presence
*carries that blessed assurance of His presence with her in all circumstances
*trusts in His sovereignty and love for her
*treasures His Word and ponders its applications to her life
*finds joy in doing His will
For me, I find that the more I delight myself in Him; He does give me the desires of my heart. The funny thing is- those desires aren’t what I always thought they were. He surprised me with a manifestation of His Word in Jeremiah 24:7…”I will give you a heart to know Me…” So instead of treating the command to “delight myself in the Lord” as a hoop that must be jumped through to win the prize, I’m realizing that delighting myself in Him is the prize. It’s become my desire. Did I do it? No, not at all. I asked Him to help me make it that way. Honestly, in my life it’s one of the prayers that He’s answered the fastest.
So today I encourage you to spend some time delighting in the presence of your Lord. I can promise He will give you the desires of your heart and more.
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