“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

I am haunted by this verse. Even before I delve into analysis or exegesis over what it means, I pay attention to what it arouses in my heart when I read it. Delight, desire, heart. It’s enthralling, thrilling even. That we are even able to delight ourselves in the Lord, first of all, is quite an astonishing reality when you think about it. We get to do that? He is a delight, a world of wonder for us, and He invites us to come and see, to drink and eat, to explore and experience Him in such a way that the pleasure of doing so would be delightful for us, and He himself would be the source of that delight?  Pause there and consider that. All our hearts’ deepest desires are really meant to be for Him. (How many human ills and traumas are the result of disordered desire?)

How many human ills and traumas are the result of disordered desire?

The verse continues on. The second half of that sentence hits me again. God will give me the desires of my heart. Is that to say that He will give me desires, implant them and cause them to sprout up from within? Or is it to say that He will fulfill the desires already there? Whatever the case (and I suspect it is both), again pay attention to the permission here, to the invitation. We get to have desire. Desire is not a bad word in its right context. God not only suggests as much, but He deliberately speaks to desire. We are made for desire. And in order to experience the desires of our hearts – pay attention to this – we must be familiar with the shape and movements and life of the inner life of the heart.

Let’s focus our attention just a bit on our heart. Read that verse again, slowly and carefully. What rises up in you as you do? What feeling comes up? What sticks out to you? 

In the previous article “Into the Dark: Transforming Loneliness into Connection,” we discussed loneliness (and all of its resultant emotional echoes, such as depression and anxiety) as a gateway to joy. Within the pangs of loneliness, there exists the surprising potential for engaging the transforming presence of Jesus, right within the darkness. More generally, pain and sorrow can even be the means by which the Lord might strip us of dependencies on lesser things, honing the organs of delight and desire within us.  He opens our eyes and ears. Remember C.S. Lewis’s helpful reminder that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains”? He finished his thought with the statement, “It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  If we can tune our hearts to listen, we will catch that invitation. 

It is a touching scene when John the Beloved shows us Jesus through the eyes of the disciples. In the first chapter of John’s gospel, we encounter John the Baptizer. John made a pronouncement about Jesus being the Lamb of God, and two of John’s disciples heard this. As Jews, they understood what was meant by “Lamb of God.” They had context for that statement. This person, said John the Baptizer, was the Messiah. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who were walking beside Jesus and didn’t know it, I imagine as I picture this scene that these two disciples’ hearts were “burning” within them (see Luke 24:32). The only thing they knew at the moment was that they wanted to be near Jesus, so they started following Him. Eventually, Jesus stops, turns around, and spots them.  Then he addresses them, asking one of the most poignant questions in the whole of the gospels, “What do you want?”

Did you catch that? “What do you want?” Jesus is deliberately addressing their desire. What is it you are after? What are you thirsty for?

What would you say to Him? Most days, I am not familiar enough with my hearts’ desire to know how to answer that question, or else it is all over the place.  Linger there. What do you want, really? Acceptance, validation, love, respect, virtue, a home where you always belong, peace, safety and security? 

Their answer is telling. It is my answer, too. They stumble, probably stuttering and stammering, and can only spit out a question in response, “Where are you staying?” It is precious, isn’t it? They don’t know what they want; all they know is that their desire has been aroused by this Jesus, and they want to hang out with Him. They want to be close to Him, to be near to Him, and so they stammer out the only thing they can think of. 

I imagine Jesus smiled when He heard this, knowing full well what He was doing in arousing their longing and ache. His response back to them is our invitation here. “’Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’” (John 1:39, NIV). 

Come, and you will see. Learn to delight yourself in Me, and the eyes of your heart will come open to the world I made for you and to the Source and Sustenance for your heart’s aching.

Come, and you will see. Learn to delight yourself in Me, and the eyes of your heart will come open to the world I made for you and to the Source and Sustenance for your heart’s aching.

I want you to take a moment now to imagine a few of the things you love and delight in. Are you an explorer, or a traveler? Do you love to see new places and meet new people? Do you enjoy learning about insects or weather? How about seeing your reflection in the eyes of your spouse while tiny flames of candlelight flicker in their their pupils? Imagine playing with your children or reading them a bedtime story while they sit on your knee. Maybe you enjoy a good book by a warming fire. Take your best moments – vacations, friendships, the joy of a job well done – and let the delight rise up as you imagine it. Everything that we experience – everything – might be compared to a painter’s canvas, a two-dimensional world. Imagine that you look up from the canvas and begin to see in three dimensions. There before you is the Painter, the Creator of all things that you enjoy in this world. He is the World now we get to spend forever discovering, exploring, enjoying, tasting, seeing. He is our portion and inheritance.

Friends, the joy of the adventure of coming to know God in greater and deeper ways is a joy we will have forever. He is forever deep, unfathomably wide, more vast than the endlessly fascinating ocean. Deeper and more intricate and beautiful than the Grand Canyon. Hotter than a hundred stars, more tender than a mother with her newborn. He is Yahweh, and He has made Himself the answer to our hearts’ greatest longings.

Let’s come and see. Let’s learn to turn the delight of our hearts toward Him. Let’s let Him fill us with desire, and let’s walk with Him as He intends to fulfill that desire in ways that pierce and delight us. 

The sixteenth century cleric and poet John Donne wrote of this experience like this:
Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you 
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; 
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend 
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. 
I, like an usurp’d town to another due, 
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; 
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, 
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue. 
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain, 
But am betroth’d unto your enemy; 
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, 
Take me to you, imprison me, for I, 
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free…

There is a World to explore in Christ, an endless universe in the Father’s heart to know. We are His bride, and He has offered Himself to be our fascination and joy. And He will deliver.