Heart’s Desire

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Psalm 37:4

God has scattered this promise throughout his Word. He promises to fulfill your heart’s desire, but you cannot know the desire of your heart unless you know the heart of your desire. Usually what we call the desire of our hearts is really a secondary desire orbiting around the true desire. What we think we desire is really the way we have imagined the true desire will be met. We think we are asking for the desire of our hearts, but we are really asking for the desire of the moment. Often, in order to give you the desire of your heart, God will withhold the desire of the moment. He says no as a prelude to a higher yes. Give him time—give him access—so that he can peel back the desire of the moment and show you the true desire of your heart. To the desire of your heart, there will always be a resounding yes from heaven.

I began to learn this one time when I was leading a conference, and my voice got raspier and raspier as the conference went on. By the time I had finished, I had no voice at all. I had to leave the next morning and fly to another location, where I would begin to lead another conference. On the flight I prayed, “Oh God, give me back my voice.”

I began to sense the Lord speaking to me: Why do you want your voice?

I answered, “So I can lead this conference.”

Why do you want to lead the conference?

“So that people can learn how to live in your power.”

Why do you want people to live in my power?

“So you can glorify yourself.”

Then, Jennifer, he seemed to say, ask me for that.

And so my prayer became, “Father, glorify yourself.”

The tension left me. My soul rested. God helped me discover the desire of my heart and relinquish the desire of the moment.

Lord, I relinquish the desire of the moment, and I receive your promise to fulfill the desire of my heart.

Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God’s will.

Frederick William Robertson(1816–1853), English clergyman