Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. —Psalm 37:4-5
Delighting in the Lord is going to lead to committing our ways to Him. If we delight in Him, then the things that delight Him will become our desires! It’s a package deal. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Let’s look a little more closely at this. Is it possible for you to ask God for material things and for Him to say no? On the other hand, is it possible for you to ask God for strength to share His Word and to give words of His love to others and for Him to say no? Which is the better of the two—more money or leading more people to Jesus?
It’s evident that God’s riches are different from our definitions of them. Are we delighting in that which pleases the Lord? Remember, God’s will is a destiny. It’s not just disciplines.
We need to address this from two perspectives, the long and the short term. In Proverbs 10, Solomon wrote, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich. And He adds no sorrow with it. To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted . . . the righteous has an everlasting foundation.” And Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:10, wrote, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
So if there are no sorrows attached to God’s blessings, and if many sorrows can be associated with the love of money, then that means that money and material things are not equivalent to blessings! Delighting in the Lord will allow you to experience life at its very best. You may not have all that the world defines as riches, but your life will be rich in the things that money can’t buy—things that are exclusive only to those born of God; things that only God can give and that no man can earn or merit: His riches in Jesus Christ.
Friends, Christianity isn’t just a list of “thou shalt nots” but it is a better way. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Excerpt from “Beside Still Waters” now available on Amazon.
