Prayers of Desire

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4  NASB Will give you – What a great promise!  Be greatly pleased with God and you’ll get everything your heart desires, right? Take pleasure in God and you’ll be guaranteed divinely provided health, wealth, and happiness (unless, of course, you desire…

The Egocentric Gospel (2)

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NASB Delight – Now we know that this verse is not about getting what you want, at least not until what you want has been transformed by what God wants. But that still leaves us with a question….

The Egocentric Gospel (1)

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NASB Desires – Does God want you to have what you want? By translating the feminine noun mishalot as “desires,” we are inclined to believe that one of God’s purposes is to be the genie who grants us…

What Do You Want? (1)

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4  NASB Desires – The first word in this verse is a word that expresses the sheer enjoyment of the person of God.  When we delight in who God is an amazing transformation occurs.  Our lives progress toward fulfillment. …

Fine Silk

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”   Psalm 37:4  NASB Delight – This word (‘anag) is used for a garment that is delicate or luxurious.  Here it means to feel great favor toward something.  But notice carefully the object of our delight.  It is not His forgiveness. …

Friendly Reminder (1)

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 (almost NASB) Wishes to be – What do you long to be?  What desire do you hold in your heart?  James’ comment is not about active expression and outward progression.  James uses the Greek verb boulomai, a…

The Wish List?

Delight yourself also in YHWH; and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 Desires – Well, this is more like it!  This spiritual magic formula has some usefulness.  If I just make myself happy with God, He’ll give me what I want.  Since I have a long list of “wants,” this…

Desires

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4 Desires – Is your God just a divine Santa Claus?  The Hebrew mish’ala is here translated “desires”.  The root verb is sha’al, usually translated as “ask”.  We usually think of this verse in the following way:  if we…

Delight

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”   Psalm 37:4 Delight – This word (anag) is used for a garment that is delicate or luxurious.  Here it means to feel great favor toward something.  This verse makes it clear that we do not delight in something God has…