The One Way To Get What Your Heart Desires

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It was my grandma’s. It hung in her house for as long as I can remember. I carried it home with me from the nursing home, held it close to my heart, after her breath had rattled and hers days had ended and I said good-bye.

It’s a piece of antique wall art, carved wood with gilded letters and pink roses, and in the midst of fresh grief, without much thought, I hung it on an empty nail in our ensuite. It hangs not so much for decor but more as a daily reminder. It has lost it’s lustre with old dust that needs to be scrubbed from the crevices, but the truth of those ancient words will never fade.

You can pass down truth like that. You can cling to truth that steers your life into a life that is worth living.



That old wall hanging, it won’t last. This life here, as we know it, it will pass. But, truth . . .truth is eternal. And the truth is, intimacy with God is what makes living most satisfying, most real, most true.

The old-fashioned letters etched in the wood and covered in gold paint that decorate my wall are words quoted from a hymn, a psalm, a poem that King David wrote. They are words that come from an old man who has the advantage of looking back over many years and speaking wisdom to countless restless souls longing to find rest and peace.

They are words for souls that need to be exhorted to “Fret not yourself” and instructed to: “Trust in the Lord”.

These words are truth that nourishes souls that, all through the ages, must be reminded that the Lord upholds and will not forsake the righteous.

We not only need these words as reminders, we need this truth that urges the faithful to patiently, earnestly seek the Lord with all your heart.

David knew this truth and sang these words in his poem, recorded in Psalm 37:

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

I look upon these ancient words day after day. There is much to take our eyes away from the beauty of the Lord. My heart needs to heed this message that is as true today as the day David sang it. There are fears, evil, injustice, and wickedness. But, the Psalmist presses in to deal with all those fears because He knows nothing can frustrate God’s plan. God doesn’t change. His truth does not change.





It is the soul that delights in God that is fully satisfied. It is the heart that delights in God that finds true happiness.

It is the heart that is soft and tender toward God that discovers that the ultimate desire is to delight in God and His glory. God will not forsake the righteous and will shape your heart to desire exactly what He desires you to have: more of Him.

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“Make God’s glory your object in life; live in His sight; dwell close to him; seek for fellowship with Him; and thou has ‘godliness’”.

A life that makes God’s glory the object in life is a life that will know the joy of the Lord and that joy is our strength in the face of whatever trial or difficultly may arise.

To delight in the Lord is not to live a life of ease or full of prosperity or free from challenging circumstances. But, God shapes your heart to desire the right things: to live a life that “trusts in the Lord”, “commits your way to the Lord”, to “be still before the Lord” and “wait patiently for the Lord”.

In the shaping, the Potter takes the clay and forms it with his hands to be fit for that which He has purposed.

Look to the Lord. Make God’s glory the object of your life. Delight in the Lord. Make God be what your heart desires.

Make your living worth living.

Horatius Bonar, a poet and hymn writer from Scotland in the 19th century, wrote a little book called “Follow the Lamb”. In it he encourages the young Christian:

“Your life is a Book; it may be a volume of larger or smaller size; and conversion is but the title-page or the preface. The Book itself remains to be written; and your years and weeks and days are its chapters and leaves and lines. It is a Book written for eternity; see that it be written well.”

A life written well is a life that can say my absolute delight is the Lord. A life that is truly living is one that my heart’s desires are met in God alone. God perfectly sets in place the desires of my heart and I find I am fully satisfied in Him.

He gives us the desires of our hearts when the deepest beat of our heart is for Him alone.

In the “Valley of Vision”, we have a prayer of a Puritan who prayed this prayer with this heartbeat:

“O GOD OF MY DELIGHT,

Thy throne of grace

is the pleasure ground of my soul.

Here I obtain mercy in time of need,

here see the smile of thy reconciled face,

here joy pleads the name of Jesus,

here I sharpen the sword of the Spirit,

anoint the shield of faith,

put on the helmet of salvation,

gather manna from thy Word,

am strengthened for each conflict,

nerved for the upward race,

empowered to conquer every foe;

Help me to come to Christ

as the fountain head of descending blessings,

as a wide open flood-gate of mercy . . . 

Quicken me, stir me, fill me with holy zeal.

Strengthen me that I may cling to thee

and not let thee go.

May thy Spirit within me draw all blessings

from thy hand. . . . 

Impress on my mind the shortness of time,

the work to be engaged in,

the account to be rendered,

the nearness of eternity,

the fearful sin of despising thy Spirit.

May I never forget that

thy eye always sees,

thy ear always hears,

thy recording hand always writes.

May I never give thee rest until Christ is

the pulse of my heart . . . ”