“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4,5)
I think this is not only an awesome passage, but one that is most misunderstood by what it means. We should all meditate on what it means to delight ourselves in the Lord and all He has done for me and my family. For me, I know that if I keep my heart centered then the desires of my heart will be what He wants them to be.
I found a sermon by C.H. Spurgeon. Amazing stuff from a way different generation.
Here is a very brief excerpt that I hope speaks to you:
Charles Spurgeon, June 15, 1862:
I know, despite all we shall say, this slander will survive from generation to generation – that God’s people are a wretched people—but, at least, let us clear our conscience of you, and let us make you without excuse if you believe it again! We do have joy; we do have delights, such that we would not part with one ounce of ours for tons of yours; not drops of our joy for rivers of your delights!
Ours are no tinsel or painted joys, but solid realities; ours are joys that we can take with us to our bed in the silent dust—joys that shall sleep with us in the tomb, and that shall awake with us in eternity; joys that we can look back upon, and so live them over again in retrospect—joys that we can anticipate, and so know both here and hereafter. Ours are not bubbles which only glitter to burst; ours are not apples of Sodom, turning to ashes in our hand; our delights are substantial, real, true, solid, lasting, everlasting!
What more shall I say? Dismiss from your minds this mistake! Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower, as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels set side by side in the same socket of gold!
But there is another wonder in our text to worldly men, though it is a wonder well understood by Christians. The text says, “He shall give you the desires of your heart.” “Why,” the worldly man says, “I thought religion was all self-denial; I never imagined that in loving God we could have our desires; I thought that godliness consisted in killing, destroying, and keeping back our desires.” Does not the religion of most men consist in an open abstinence from sins which they secretly love? Negative godliness is very common in this age; it is supposed by most men that our religion consists in things which we must not do, rather than in pleasures which we may enjoy! We must not go to a theater; we must not sing songs, trade on Sundays, use ill words, and so on. We must not do this, and we must not do that.
And they suppose us to be a crabbed, miserable race of persons who, no doubt, make up by some private allowance for denying ourselves in public. Now, it is true that religion is self-denial; it is equally true that it is not self-denial! Christians have two selves; there is the old self, and therein they do deny the flesh with its affections and lusts; but there is a new self; there is a new-born spirit, the new man in Christ Jesus; and, brethren, our religion does not consist in any self-denial of that! No, let it have the full swing of its wishes and desires, for all that it can wish for, all that it can pant after, all that it can long to enjoy—it may most safely obtain!
When I hear persons say, “Well, you know my religion consists in some things that I must do, and in some things that I must not do.” I reply, “Mine consists in things that I love to do, and in avoiding things that I hate, and would scorn to do.” I feel no chains in my religion, for I am free, and never man more free; he who fears God, and is wholly God’s servant, has no chains about him; he may live as he likes, for he likes to live as he ought! He may have his full desires, for his desires are holy, heavenly, and divine! He may take the full range of the utmost capacity of his wishes and desires, and have all he needs and all he wishes, for God has given him the promise, and God will give him the fulfillment of it!
If you want to read the full sermon, you can find it here:
http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols7-9/chs454.pdf
Dead Man Walking 
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