Desire of my heart

In the states our prayers and our attitudes say “Lord, please remove this struggle from me!” I’m learning that mature Christians say “Lord, please give me the grace and strength to bear up under this struggle!” This reminds me of the verse Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you desires of your heart. As a young Christian I struggled when I read this verse- I’m delighting in the Lord, why am I not getting the desires of my heart? Now I’m beginning to see that delighting myself in my Lord means to let my heart beat with His. To learn to know His heart is to be delighted by it and have the same desires as His! Then the wants of my heart are His! The desire of my heart was to go to serve in Africa. This is a good prayer right? But God said, Jennifer- I want you to want me first, not want to serve me first! Now my prayer is not to be sent to Africa but to be within God’s will for me. And because the desire of my heart is to be within the will of God He has completely given me this longing! (Which amazingly enough includes Africa!  But what if it didn't?  What if our well laid plans and months of fundraising came to nothing? Would I still be OK? I would grieve but then I would be fine. Because I'm learning to want what my Father in Heaven wants).

These are just my mental wanderings today. But the reason that I’m sharing them with you is that I know God is saying the same to you as He has said to me “I want you to desire me! Not just the things of me, though they may be good. My child, delight yourself in me! Long for me and I will answer you!”