Tuesday, November 23, 2010
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jeremiah 7-9 and 1 Timothy 6
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jeremiah 7-9 and 1 Timothy 6
THE LONGING FOR RELATIONSHIP
SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 37:4 (NIV) Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Some say that if you love God wholeheartedly you will get all sorts of blessings, it’s some sort of “pray for pay” plan that puts Him in the role of a heavenly Santa Claus. Others say that He will supernaturally implant desires in you that are actually His but this makes God like a puppeteer, who tricks you into doing His will by convincing you it’s what you want. There is a third way to interpret this verse - What if the moment we were conceived we were hard-wired for certain pursuits? That God implanted the desires of our hearts within us, as extensions of who we really are? That the reason that you feel pleasure when you do certain things was because you were truly made to do those things? The preacher who is fulfilled preaching to five as to five thousand, the worship leader who gets just as much fulfillment singing alone in his basement as leading thousands on a Sunday morning, the businessman who get satisfaction from a job well done. God knows the passions in each of our hearts, He designed them, when we express them He has joy in His heart and He means for us to experience that joy too. To share the passions of another’s heart is an extremely deep form of intimacy. This leads us to ask Jesus, “What are the passions of your heart, what brings you pleasure, what are you enthusiastic about?”
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
1. Have you misinterpreted this verse in order to try to get what you want from God? Does it make sense that God has hard-wired you for certain pursuits? Spend some time meditating on this.
2. In listening prayer, ask the Holy Spirit what desires He has specifically hard-wired into your heart? Ask Him if you are fulfilling them in godly or ungodly ways and how to pursuit them His way.
3. Thank God for the desires that He has given you!
