My daughter Olivia likes “pretty” things. Every morning she asks to wear a pretty dress, and she will let you know if the dress that you pick out for her is NOT pretty.
For Christmas, we got her a couple of cute sparkly “pretty” shoes. She wore them all the time. It didn’t matter if it was cold out or hot out, she always wanted to wear these sparkly little ballet flats. But then she wore them out.
It is now summer and most of the time she doesn’t want to wear shoes. But the other night, I was thinking to myself that I need to go get her shoes. And sparkly gold shoes was the first thing that came to mind of what I needed to get her, because she loved them so much.
I had forgotten about it, but the next morning I see on social media that someone I know was looking to give away the same pair of shoes (and a pair of fall booties), in a size that would fit Olivia in the fall. She was more than willing to send them to us, since she lives out of town.
When we got them, Olivia grabbed them, hugged them, said I love them, and immediately put them on.
And this is not the first time that something like this has happened. I remember driving to work one morning on my birthday, and it hadn’t started off as a great day. But I really wanted a chocolate cupcake. I didn’t tell anyone, and I figured I would just forget about it, but that day someone brought me a chocolate cupcake at work.
And to me this is a reflection and a reminder that God will give us the desires of our heart.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
Recently I was thinking a lot about that verse. And one question I couldn’t get out of my mind. Where do the desires of our hearts come from anyway? I mean I don’t just randomly choose that I like chocolate cake? Right?
I looked closer at this verse in my Blue Bible App, and began to see this verse differently.
No longer did I see the verse saying He will give you the desires of your heart (and how they got there I have no clue), but instead that if we delight ourselves in God… so if we find joy in Him, if we seek Him, if we trust Him… He will give, set, put in us the desires, petitions, requests of our heart.
So not only will He give you the desires of your heart, He is the One who will place those desires in our hearts to begin with, as we delight ourselves in Him.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17
Now I want to pause for a second, because the desires of the heart I am speaking of, are not birthday wishes. And Olivia’s shoes, and the cupcake story are really just a small reflection/reminder of who God is. The desires I am speaking of are the deeper desires. The desire to be loved, the desire to be known, the dreams He put in your heart, that thing you want to do for Him, that song you want to write, ministry you want to start…
But there can be a part of me that wonders if what He gives me, I will actually like.
Like, have you ever gotten a gift that you really didn’t like? That you know you would never use? And you wonder Why would that person get me THAT? There was this one time, that sticks out in my head, when this happened. It was Christmas like 20 years ago, and someone pretty close to me got me a pair of gold elephant earrings. I have no clue why anyone would buy me elephant earrings, and gold for that matter. But it would be like me giving my son Star Wars toys, when his joy is really Legos. Or like me buying Olivia overalls, when she really wants a pretty dress. Or someone getting me a strawberry flavored cupcake when I love chocolate.
You get the point. And if you are like me, as a friend, parent, etc, you probably want to give people what they like, what they desire. I don’t really like to get gifts, but one of my favorite things to do is to get something for someone that they would really like.
That is how God is. Read this part of Matthew 7.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
This is out of the mouth of Jesus.
Simply stated, He isn’t going to give us something that we aren’t going to like. He may allow us to walk through some things in life that we don’t like at all, but as for giving us the desires of our hearts… He will give them to us, because He put those desires in us in the first place.
And I really like at the end it draws attention to the fact that we are sinful, and that even though we sin, we still know how to give our children good gifts. But God is all good. There is no evil in Him, and that means that His good gifts, are so much better than we could even ask.
And when God gifts us the desires that He has placed in our hearts… we are going to be like Olivia, getting the gold shoes, hugging them, and saying I love them, because our good Father, knows how to give good gifts.
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Trust in Him and He will do this. (Psalm 37: 4-5)
