26th May, 2022.

GRANTING DESIRES

Psalms 37: 4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Several times, I've heard some brethren quote the opening text. Often, they don't quote it in full. They emphasize on the last line of that verse "...and he will give you the desires of your heart". Most times, this scripture is used to support prayer requests that are often devoid of God's will for their lives. Sometimes, when we teach or preach to people about following the will of God for their lives, instead of asking the Lord what His will is for their lives, they go ahead and demand from God that thing which has been on their heart. Their belief is that as long as the desires are good, God will grant it. Hey! That sounds right but it is not scripturally right. Somethings may be good but not in God's will for your life. God is a perfect gentle man who doesn't impose His will on His children. He made man a free moral agent who can decide whatever he wants.

It is not every good desire that is in line with God's will. Oftentimes, we mean well for our lives but that doesn't mean we are right considering what God's will is. Sometimes, Satan can allow a believer have his desires met because he knows that having those things desired can sway him/her off from the perfect will of God. For example, some persons married without asking God if whom they married is God's will. They just fell in love with someone who ticked all their boxes and they got married. To such persons, whatever they want is what God must sanction. That they got what they wanted does not necessarily mean God has a hand in it. The devil can allow God's children have "good" things so they forget to press in for the best of God. As they say, the enemy of the best is good. I don't want you to be naive about this. God's desire is to grant only desires that aligns with His will for your life. He is not an arbitrary God. He is a God whose actions and decisions are well planned and thought of.

The opening text starts this way: "Take delight in the Lord". What does this mean? It is love the Lord and lost in His will for your life. It is a dimension of continuous fellowship and communion with God whereby He becomes the Lord and driver of your life. At this point in your life, His desires become your desires. So when the Psalmist say "...And he will give you the desires of your heart". The "desire" implied here is that very thing God desire for our lives that He implanted in our hearts as a result of delighting in Him. There's a nexus between delighting in the Lord and granting of the resultant desires. It will be totally wrong to think God will just grant any carnal desire. Whenever we have our carnal desires, just know that we are in a permissive terrain but God is not happy with it. Israelites wanted a king, they got it but it wasn't God's plan for their nation. Mature believers don't impose desires on God, they walk with God to know His desires and then they pursue that desire for their lives. This is the difference between babies and sons. God's will for your life is the best, your duty is to seek and discover it. His will must become our desires.