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. Those secret spaces are no longer empty. We experience the desires of our reborn hearts as joy. As the psalmist suggests, God gives us His desires so that they may become our desires.
Today we look at the result of this enjoyment. In Hebrew, mish’ala (plural mish’alot) means a personal plea for something. This word occurs only twice in the entire Old Testament. But its root word (sha’al) is used over one hundred times for asking God for guidance or for some possession.
This is a promise that each of us must make our personal motto. It is the Old Testament equivalent of Yeshua’s statement, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” But in our world, it seems like utter foolishness to place all of my confidence in God. The world tells me that the best investment strategy is diversification. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Why do David and Yeshua tell us just the opposite? Because they know that only God is really reliable. Everything and everyone else will fail.
In spite of my solid conviction about this truth, I find that I am struggling with great intensity over this verse today. God knows the direction of my heart is toward Him. He knows that my final desire is to see His will done in my life. But my life is not filled with joy these days. It is riddled with struggle and anxiety. I know that God can do anything He chooses but the question plaguing me is will He rescue me. I need this verse more than ever. I need to see that God is my life; that no one else and nothing else can come between us and that my true joy will be found only in Him. I have spent many hours on my knees asking God to intervene in the trauma before me. Both David and Yeshua tell me that He will. God’s faithfulness is the most important fact of life. But my crisis of faith is not knowing what He says. It is stepping forward on the basis of what He says. My doubt is Hebrew hesitation, not Greek lack of information. I want His desires in my heart but I struggle to let go and walk with Him into a future that I cannot see. My need for security is fixed on the visible but God comes to me with audio assurance. I must trust what I hear, not what I see. And in Hebraic thinking, what I hear I do. That is faith.
Father, renew my hope. Grant me true delight in You. Let me be fully identified with the words of Your Son, “Thy will be done.” Help me take the next step forward as if I were a blind man for, Father, I truly am blind without You.”
Topical Index: desires, mish’ala, sha’al, to ask, truth, Psalm 37:4
Hi Skip,
A question: did you receive my private email to you? I have 4 email addresses and don’t know if I used the right one.
got it thanks I am teaching at a conference now. Will respond later.
Thanks. No hurry! You might want to investigate….
excellent word. This is one of my most favorite verses and my prayer is like yours too. thank you for sharing.
But my life is not filled with joy these days. It is riddled with struggle and anxiety. I know that God can do anything He chooses but the question plaguing me is will He rescue me.
I struggle so with this same feeling/belief. I have recently been reading a book by Rabbi Shalom Arush, and, of course, I do not agree with everhthing in there. But the message I am getting is that I have lived my life focused on myself and my desires, focusing on what the outcome could be and tryng to figure out how Yah would work/deliver me. Consequently, I have lived a life filled with anxiety and depression rather than living a life of gratitude for EVERYTHING that Yahweh brings/allows. I did not believe that He IS goodness. (I learned this from you in your Spitiual Restoration Vol. 1 book.) My friend, who has lost a son to huffing, a husband to divorce, a husband to early heart attack, and more tells me the gift is in the struggle. I hope to live a life of gratitude, thanking Yah for each detail as it comes, believing that He is only good rather than trying to figure out what may be. Where you are right now is exactly where you need to be. Be thankful. Ask how Yah can be glorified in this struggle and praise Him all day long. I think the anxiety will be released, and you will be ok with the outcome, whatever it is. Hope I can follow my own advice. Shalom and be blessed.
Try starting with the simplest of things. Take a breath. Deliberately. THink about the LIFE you receive from that breath. Think about the complexities of how that air is converted into energy for you – without you having to do anything more than breathe. And then thank Him for making all that work, for every part of this moment of being alive. Each time you face anxiety today, do this. Remind yourself that just being alive is an enormous gift – and your struggles confirm that you are breathing, alive and being blessed.
So amazing. Oh the things we take for granted. Thanks!!
God my Father comes to me in my struggles, when I am completely incompetent–and I know it–to fix the mess I’m in. Only in my absolute dependence on His forgiveness and His love, is there the glimmer of true hope. Restoration brings joy, even though the trials remain. Gratitude is the antidote for despondency. The enemy wants us to wallow in our misery; God may allow this, for a time. But God is greater than the enemy, and He will bring His children under His wing, even if it takes the most profound sorrow and grief. I must be careful not to refuse His tender ministrations that sometimes look like trials to me. Thank you, Skip, for your reminder that thankfulness is a pre-requisite to the joy we are all longing for. Your messages are a tremendous help in my walk behind Yeshua.
We recently watched Winged Migration, a remarkable movie about birds in flight. They’re just birds!
And God loves you MORE than the birds! Have a blessed Sabbath.
Love, Nancy Spencer
I was just speaking about this last night to a dear friend. I was having a bit of a hard time explaining. Lori, you hit the nail on the head when you said this: “the gift is in the struggle. ” That’s it! The worst of times, the best of times:)
Skip, we stand with you as you receive your gift from our loving Father. May we hold each others’ arms up as we draw nearer to the One who delights in us and may our desires be his.
Skip, if you only knew how your piece today spoke to me. It’s almost as if you have been in my head. Thanks so much for your transparency and willingness to share your crisis of faith. It’s helping me as I face and experience mine.
“Delight yourself in the Lord” brings us out of earth and into the heavenly realms. It is difficult to “BE STILL and KNOW” because we want to do something to fix it! Rest is a weapon in our hands that is foreign to us because we are trained to do: ‘To Do Lists’, calendars, etc. drive us; the opposite of Rest. During the Rest He speaks kindly to us, He reminds us of His Sovereignty that “He Makes all things work together for good.”
And why you ask? Because He is a Creator, therefore, I can rest and by delighting myself in Him, I am the one who comes out of the ‘rest’ delighted.
as Zorbas said….when everything starts to fall down…dance and laugh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4UV6HVMRmdk#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wo2wpT2k
Romeo and Juliette in America – a musical from Puerto Rico
“Father, renew my hope. Grant me true delight in You. Let me be fully identified with the words of Your Son, “Thy will be done.” Help me take the next step forward as if I were a blind man for, Father, I truly am blind without You.”
Amen
Content can soothe where’er by God placed;
Can raise a garden in the desert waste.
Thank you for sharing Skip – keeping it real and encouraging, prayer is always our gift of access to the Father, and our assurance is that we are loved. David, a man after His own heart – was always restored no matter what came – and in the end he was gathered to his fathers in Shalom.
Blessings
Thanks for your vulnerability, it’s extremely refreshing. God is Good!
Bless you Skip. Today’s message & your openness has encouraged me too. Amidst the turmoil of seemingly insurmountable odds, I will dance like David danced, give a sacrifice of praise, declare the victory & see the salvation (my desires) of our God come to pass.