Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you prayed and prayed for some particular blessing, and it seems the answer has never come?
In particular, you have read (and re-read) Psalm 37:4, 5, which says: "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."
And yet, year after year, maybe even decade after decade, you have not yet realized "the desires of your heart." If that has been your experience, you are not alone (if that can be any comfort to you!). You have a serious problem--to decide what is your evaluation of the character of your heavenly Father.
The way we humans naturally think, the text is written backwards. It should say, "Let the Lord give you the desires of your heart, and then I shall delight myself in Him!" But the "delighting" comes first, otherwise there could be no such thing as faith. No matter how long you have waited for "the desires of your heart," you can choose to believe that your heavenly Father is true to His word, even if you don't see any prayers answered.
This is an extremely critical point in our life: it's where we choose to believe or disbelieve. God "calls those things which do not exist as though they did" (Rom 4:17), and we are privileged to share His faith--to believe in something we cannot yet see.
Your heavenly Father is not being mean to you; He needs you to honor Him before the world and before the universe as one who believes Him in the dark. That was the experience your Savior had on His cross: He felt that God had forsaken Him, yet He chose to believe in the face of total despair. That was the definition of His faith.
We have the Good News that He will have a people on earth who also have chosen to believe Him even in total darkness, when everything seems to be against them. They have asked their Father for a piece of bread; Satan wants them to think He put a stone on their plate. You have the choice to be loyal to your heavenly Father. And then leave that "desire of your heart" in His care, and thank Him in advance that at the right time you will enjoy it.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 21, 2001.
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