Desires....they're tricky.

Desires are tricky, you know? Especially those that are good. Like a desire to do missions. Or a desire to be a wife and mom. Or a desire to be a mom 20 times over (I know, I'm crazy). So, what's so tricky about those good desires? They can become idols. Our little hearts can be idol making factories if we're not careful. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life!" (Proverbs 4:23) If we're not careful it can be the wellspring of idols! But here's the wonderful thing. God is good. So good. And He doesn't give His glory to another. So he helps us destroy our idols. How? By NOT giving us the desires of our hearts, no matter how 'good' they seem to be! You may think that makes God NOT good but you would be wrong. And so would I. Last week I wrestled with why God had not granted my desires. They were good and godly desires so why hasn't he delivered?? Oh...because I was delighting in my desires and NOT HIM!

Delight yourself IN THE LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart! Psalm 37:4

I turned my desire for children into an idol meaning I wanted that more than I wanted God. And God is good. He knows idols don't deliver on their promises (Thanks for that reminder in your sermon yesterday C.W. It's a good listen. Here's the link:http://fbcwolfforth.org/index.php?page=sermons). He knows that true satisfaction can only be found in Him. So, He denies me what I want most (my idol) to give me what I need most and what will ultimately satisfy the most in the end. What would that be? Rather, who would that be? HIM!

God loves me, His daughter, enough to say no to something seemingly good to me in order to sanctify me. He cares more about my holiness and sanctification than He does pleasing me and making me "happy" because He knows that I won't truly be happy without Him. See how good He is? It seems unfair and He seems unloving to deny us the desires of our hearts (for a season anyway...things change) but its really for our ultimate good! He denies us those things that we may look to HIM for satisfaction!  Oh that that truth would become my reality! So, don't forget the first part of Psalm 37:4. Delight yourself in HIM and HIM alone. And He will give you the desires of your heart because He will ALWAYS give you Himself! And because He satisfies, we are satisfied.

Ahhh...I love our good and gracious and loving Father!!

The Puritans said it well in The Valley of Vision (Confession and Petition, p138):

"I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused-
I have asked amiss and do not have,
I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.

Go on with Thy patient work,
answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers,
and fitting me to accept it.
Purge me from every false desire,
every base aspiration,
everything contrary to thy rule.
I thank Thee for thy wisdom and thy love,
for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,
for sometimes putting me into the furnace
to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.
If thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins,
or to have them burnt away with trial,
GIVE ME SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION.
Deliver me from every evil habit,
every accretion of former sins,
everything that dims the brightness of thy grace in me,
EVERYTHING THAT PREVENTS ME TAKING DELIGHT IN THEE.
Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright."