On Wednesday night at intercession, Uncle Eric led us to do listening prayer from parts of Psalm 37.
As I was beginning to ask the Lord what he had for me to take away from the passage, I sensed him saying, “Believe Me when I say that I am true to my Word”. Which, I won’t lie, in the moment felt like a bit of a non-sequitur…
Having that word fresh in my mind though, allowed me to notice how many promises are in this psalm! If we this, then God that. If we that… then God this. I really encourage you to check it out and see what stands out to you too!
My attention, in a frustratingly predictable way, seemed to land on verse 4…
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
After I kinda rolled my eyes and tried to press in a little deeper to see if this actually was the Lord or my humanity longing to have my desires met, I realized that what God had said earlier also applied to this.
So, I settled into verse 4 and was surprised to notice that I didn’t actually feel excited by this promise… I felt stressed!!
What if I chose the wrong desire? What if my desires are bad? What if I have too many desires?! What if, what if, what if…
I realized that the pressure I was feeling was more aligned with Aladdin attempting to pick his three wishes from the Genie, than it was aligned with my identity as a Child of God.
This verse is not about making sure our desires are perfect.
The take away here was not for me to think about my desires and dwell on them… the take away was to delight myself in the Lord!!
As I began to shift my attention back to the Real, One True God rather than some Robin Williams-esque version of “God”, I sensed him speak again. “You have more than one desire and I have more than enough for you.”
Instead of focusing on cutting back my wish list to some magic number, I knew the Lord was encouraging me to dream bigger. To consider the many desires of my heart from a place of knowing that God is true to his word…
God’s Word is not confined to some lamp hidden away in the desert, “it is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”! (Psalm 119:105)
And as fun as it would be to have a big blue (hilarious!!) pal who sticks with me through thick and thin, able to grant me any three wishes as I choose them… Knowing the triune God (who is three in one), who is true to his word, promises to never leave or forsake me, is way better.
And I can’t help but wonder how much more God has for me, and how much more God has for us as the Lifespring family…
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
DEUTERONOMY 31:6