Delights and desires (Mark)

Sounds a bit fleshy, doesn’t it? Sounds like some kind of sensual marketing. But I read it in the Bible.
Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
We are right of course to disobey the desires of the sinful nature, those temporal and carnal and selfish desires that would destroy us; but we are wrong to throw all of our desires out with the bath water. We are mistaken to mistrust those desires that resonate and flow out from our hearts. God loves us, and our hearts are precious to Him. In Him, our hearts are good and its desires are redeemed. It is the enemy who has an interest in leading us to doubt our hearts.
There are times when I neglect prayer or reading the Word and it’s easy to begin to feel shame, which doesn’t help at all. When I consider that I have a deep desire to know God better and stir that up, then I am ready to run towards Him.
I can become frustrated at work, resenting the busyness and the paperwork. But it does me good to remember that I have a desire to be a good teacher. Stirring that desire motivates me to enjoy my work all the more.
We are invited to delight in our Lord. It blesses our souls and gives us joy to deliberately and intentionally delight in Him. I can dread all the tasks that must be done in a day or I can decide to appreciate the day that I have been given and all the wonderful opportunities that come with it. We can actively take joy and begin to delight in everything that God has done for us and promised us.
And He won’t neglect those desires that are in our hearts. He would see them spring up and lead us to greater wholeness and joy. Of course, the smiles on our faces will glorify Him more and more.
Our hearts are free. Its desires are good. All I need to do is let myself delight in Him, rather than spending all my energy to seek the desires themselves. He will give them to me.
PS - I have been intrigued lately with the idea that I can learn joy. I am wondering if I can learn soul skills that will lead me to live in greater freedom, maturity and joy.
PPS – I have to credit John Eldredge and what I have learnt from his teaching about our hearts and desire. I’m excited that I picked up a copy of his book called ‘Desire’ and I’m going to start reading it today.