What is it you want most in your life? What is it that makes you tick? What’s your heart’s desire?
Physically the human heart is amazing instrument of God’s creation:
From the moment it begins beating until the moment it stops, the human heart works tirelessly. In an average lifetime, the heart beats more than two and a half billion times, without ever pausing to rest. Like a pumping machine, the heart provides the power needed for life. http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/
Spiritually the Bible speaks a great deal about the heart. We are told that “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
How can we know what is in our hearts? If I said to you that there is a battle going on inside of us, old nature, new nature, evil and good, self, and Spirit, sin or sanctification would you really understand what that all means?
The battle for the heart is based on the battle for the mind but it’s deeper than that. In our minds we are commanded to think on what is right and good and true and Holy (Phil. 4:8)
But the word for heart is deeper than the mind. We are instructed to, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23
The NLT says “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Prov. 4:23 NLT)
The word for spiritual heart here is refers to the whole personality. Not just the thought life but The Real You. God knows the heart and He knows the Real us even when we don’t know our own hearts…so today look with me at Psalm 37:4
What makes you happy? Simple question but I guarantee many Christians don’t know the answer to that. Americans waste more time and money chasing after things that satisfy slightly.
Could I suggest most Americans don’t really know what they are after. Most people here in our country couldn’t begin to understand this verse because they don’t know their heart’s purpose.
Rick Warren writes, “The smile of God is the goal of your life. Since pleasing God is the first purpose of your life, your most important task is to discover how to do that.”
Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, (pg.69)
Our verse says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
This verse is accomplished in two stages notice the breakdown.
I. Our Desire for Him “Delight yourself also in the Lord.”
Think about America today and the words delight yourself. Most people are seeking happiness in money, power, success, self-indulgence. They look for happiness everywhere except the LORD. Even Christians seek out things of the world that grant limited happiness. Here it where the heart is conditioned to believe that the world has something more to offer than God.
Jesus didn’t die for our sins so we could get our way. He didn’t die so we could be happy apart from knowing and loving Him. It doesn’t matter if we think we’re always right, have the best
opinion or that everyone should listen to us we can’t find true happiness if our desire isn’t pleasing the Lord.
So it begs the question. How can we know if our desire is pleasing to Jesus?
Simple question and a simple answer. You Ready?
It pleases the Lord if it advances His kingdom. Jesus gives the answer in His sermon on the Mount. The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
If what we are doing is drawing others into the kingdom of God and what our plans are will draw others closer to the Lord than what we are doing is going to please the Lord.
Kenneth Taylor worked for Moody Press. He and his wife did family devotions with their children. The kids couldn’t understand the KJV Bible. So daddy translated the KJV into what we now call The Living Bible. All because a dad’s desire was that his kids could understand God’s Word.
If there is any thing other than delighting yourself in Jesus you may feel happy from time to time but you are not truly happy?
There’s a reason for that by the way. The enemy. The enemy causes many to believe that there are other desires to be had. Food for example. Man who doesn’t love to eat?
Seafood is my downfall...when I See food I can’t wait to eat.
So people over eat but not all of it is food problems. People over indulge at work, pile on more responsibilities, add a side order of family problems have stress for desert and before you know it they have a diet of wrong desires.
They are eating at the wrong table. Their diet’s need to be changed. I hate diets. In my financial coaching class they said don’t use the word budget...sounds too negative for people. Use the term “Spending Plan.” We don’t have a budget we have a “Spending Plan.”
Sounds positive! So let’s not call it “diet” anymore let’s call it an “Eating Plan.” What “Eating Plan” are you on? What food keeps you fit? Notice God’s Word in John 6:35, “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger.’” John 6:35
If we try to satisfy our stomachs, satisfy our lives, with anything other than Jesus we will always come away unhappy.
What makes you happy? Our Desire for Him?
II. His Desire for us “and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
The blessing is conditional. It always is. If we do our part, He’s already done His part. We’re not waiting on Him He’s waiting on us patiently, lovingly waiting for us to see He has a purpose, a plan and offers total fulfillment for our lives.
A man died went to heaven. An angel is giving him a tour and shows him his mansion. He notices that behind his mansion is a huge warehouse. He says’ to the Angel, “What’s that building?”
The Angel says, “you don’t want to know.” The man says yes and the Angel rather reluctantly takes him to the warehouse.
Inside is everything the man’s heart could imagine for life here on Earth.
The man said “whose warehouse is this?” The Angel said, “Yours.” He looks at the man and said, “these are all the things God wanted to give you, if only you would have asked.”
Notice that’s our verse. “Give you,” the desires of your heart. You say yea preacher but that’s “IF” we do what God says.
To which I answer DUH….God knows YOU and what is best for YOU better than YOU.
We don’t know what we want. That’s why there 153 Fast-food restaurants in town. We wait in line for a micro-waved
hamburger.
What do we do when we don’t know our heart’s desire? We ask God.
You may have heard of the prayer of Jabez? Here is an unknown nobody in the Bible mentioned only in 1 Chronicles
4:9-10, “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.’” 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
The first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles are a genealogy of the nation of Israel from Adam all the way through the kings of Israel. Nobody gets any special attention accept for Jabez. Jabez simply asked the Lord for His blessing.
Why don’t you do the same thing? Too bold? Too daring maybe too presumptuous to ask such a thing from God? Then let me ask you a question...Is this verse true for everyone? Or just everyone else?
Maybe you have bought some snake oil. Maybe you believe that life has passed by and your life is too far spent for to be a blessing to others.
I introduce to you Harland Sanders. Ever heard of him? I know him as the man who founded my favorite fast-food joint KFC. You probably know him as the Colonel.
Colonel Sanders well he wasn’t a real Colonel. At age 10, he got his first job working on a nearby farm for $2 a month. When he was 12, his mother remarried and he left his home near Henryville, Ind., for a job on a farm in Greenwood, Ind. He held a series of jobs over the next few years, first as a 15-year-old streetcar conductor in New Albany, Ind., and then as a 16-year-old private, soldiering for six months in Cuba.
After that he was a railroad fireman, studied law by correspondence, practiced in justice of the peace courts, sold insurance, operated an Ohio River steamboat ferry, sold tires, and operated service stations. When he was 40, the Colonel began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped at his service station in Corbin, Ky. He didn't have a restaurant then, but served folks on his own dining table in the living quarters of his service station.
As more people started coming just for food, he moved across the street to a motel and restaurant that seated 142 people. Over the next nine years, he perfected his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices and the basic cooking technique that is still used today.
Sander's fame grew. Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine.
In the early 1950s a new interstate highway was planned to bypass the town of Corbin. Seeing an end to his business, the
Colonel auctioned off his operations. After paying his bills, he was reduced to living on his $105 a month Social Security checks.
But his heart’s desire was to have a restaurant franchise and at the young age of 62 he started it.
http://www.ronford.net/ui/kfc3/Townsquare/colonel/colhistory1.htm
What is your heart’s desire?
Conclusion:
William Tyndale stood against the Corrupt church of the early 1500’s. His heart’s desire was to print the Bible in English. The church didn’t want the Bible to be understandable by the common man and even thought this to be heresy.
Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”
He died Oct. 6, 1536. Three years later the king of England had an English Bible printed. If not for William Tyndale we wouldn’t have a Bible in English.
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/william-tyndale.html
434 years later a dad wanted his children to understand the Bible during their devotions. He translated the New Testament and Billy Graham started giving them away at his crusades.
Thousands were being distributed. Then in 1971 the entire Living Bible was printed by the new publishing house founded by daddy Kenneth Taylor...the Publishing house is called Tyndale.
http://www.bible-researcher.com/lbp.html
Millions of Christian books have been published because a man had in his heart to translate the Bible in English and because a dad wanted his kids to learn God’s Word.
What is your heart’s desire? It’s not bigger than God’s desire for you.
PRAY
