The Desires of Thine Heart Ps 37:4 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The desires of thine heart are, by definition, the things that you long or hope for – so when a man longs or hopes for a Boone and Crockett deer he will spend his money on leases and hunting gear and he will spend his weekends during deer season hunting until he gets what he has been longing for – or when a young lady longs for affection, she will fall for a young man who shows her the kind of affection she has been longing for – whatever you long for or hope for in your heart is the desire of your heart – and there are many desires.

Often the problem is that the desires are not good [Ps 10:3]; they are wicked – and this problem is compounded when a person who has wicked desires doesn’t disclose those desires to the people who can fulfill them or to the people who will be hurt when they are fulfilled.  Many parents have been gravely distressed upon discovering that their daughter has fallen for the “wrong” guy or that their son is a drug addict.  Many wives have been shocked to learn that their husbands have cheated on them.  Many uninformed investors have been scammed by “dealers” whose sole desire was to get rich even if he had to lie to “suckers” rather than to provide a worthy investment opportunity.

Of course, there are also good desires.  There are still a lot of people who are genuinely caring and you long to be and hope to be helpful to the people they serve or take care of.  Their satisfaction comes from being a blessing to you.  Those are very good desires.

This text shows you that the best desires are the ones the Lord gives you.  This verse doesn’t say that the Lord will GRANT you the desires of your heart; it says that he will GIVE you the desires of your heart.  That is when you delight yourself in the Lord he will put desires in your heart that weren’t there before.  He will change your desires.

Just look what happened to Paul in Rom 10:1.  The last thing on earth Paul wanted before he was saved is for Israel to “be saved.”  He was trying to kill off all of the followers of Jesus.  But when Paul began to delight himself in the Lord, his desire for Israel changed completely.

So, here are some things to keep in mind about the desires of your heart.

First, delight thyself in the Lord – to delight in the Lord is to take great satisfaction and pleasure in the Lord – this is where most of today’s Christians need help – their satisfaction comes from getting their own desires met [loving themselves] and from loving pleasure as an object in itself [2 Tim 3:2, 4].  You need to forget those things that you have been longing for and hoping for and you need to find your satisfaction and pleasure in the Lord himself – your delight in the Lord is rooted in the first commandment.

Second, let the Lord put his desires in your heart – when the Lord gives you the desires he wants you to have then he also intends to fulfill those desires – he can and he will – in 1 Tim 3:1 before the Lord ever calls a man to preach or puts him in the ministry, he will put the desire in his heart – he surely did this for me and he has exceeded my desires immensely – when a young lady delights herself in the Lord, the Lord puts the desire in her heart for the right kind of man and she escapes falling for a young man after her own desires – she’ll find more satisfaction in the man the Lord brings her – when a young man is trying to figure out what to do with his life, if he will start by delighting in the Lord, the Lord will put the desire in his heart for the Lord’s will and he will be more satisfied in the Lord’s will than he ever would pursuing his own desires.

Third, remember that what you desire is what you love – Prov 19:22 “the desire of a man is his kindness” – in this verse kindness is not favor or sympathy [the common meaning in the Bible] but rather “the feeling of fondness, affection, love” – so the desire of a man [the thing he longs for or hopes for] is his kindness [the thing he loves] – so when you long for heaven [2 Cor 5:2] your affections get set on things above [Col 3:2] – and interestingly when your affection gets set on things above you delight even more in the Lord and he gives you even more desires in your heart.

Conclusion: One of the greatest problems with Christians today is unfulfilled desires [Prov 13:12] – they are not content – and the more they try to fulfill their desires the more they end up loving themselves and their pleasures [2 Tim 3:2-4] – you need to stop and realize the root of your trouble lies in the fact that you have not been delighting in the Lord – start there and let the Lord take care of the rest of this stuff.