How you ever longed to get everything you always wanted?

You’ve dreamed of “having it all” – the right this, the perfect that, the best whatchamadoodle, and the newest thingamajigger (those are some of my favorite Southern “words”).

Well, today is your lucky day – I’m going to tell you how to get everything you always wanted!

Well…sort of.

I must first apologize if you will eventually feel as though I’ve misled you, but I believe you will thank me in the end. You see…in my life I am starting to learn a very valuable lesson I want to share with you –

I’m learning that the key to my happiness and yours isn’t getting everything you always wanted, after all.

WHAT?!?!

I know! I know! It was pretty hard for me to swallow at first, too. Kind of like that horrible game where you try to eat 7 crackers in a minute (Yep – it’s as bad as it sounds).

I believe the secret lies in something completely different.

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

You see, when people read that verse, they often want to read it in a way that was not intended by its author. Most people want to read that as, “If I follow God, He will give me everything I’ve always wanted.”

That prosperity gospel has been going around for some time now. Follow God and get a new car, a new job, and new husband, a new paycheck, and new…you get the picture.

“If I want it, all I’ve got to do is love God and love other people, and it’s mine!”

That’s not what the Psalmist was saying——–

“Take delight in the Lord.”

To take delight is something is to really really enjoy it. To delight in someone is to experience great pleasure by being in his presence. And the only way to really enjoy being with someone is when you know them closely.

The more intimately you know God, the more you will take delight in Him. And the only way you can intimately know Him is to spend a lot of time with Him.

Once we get that part down, something funny starts to happen…

He gives us what our hearts want.

I know you’re thinking I just said that loving God wasn’t about getting what you want, and I did. But, this is a little different.

It’s not that God gives us the things in our hearts that we may already want. Instead He places the things in our hearts that HE wants FOR US.

Do you see the difference?

As we get to know God more…

As we get closer to God…

And as we find great pleasure in just spending time with Him in His presence…

He changes our hearts.

We start to want what He wants for us – what He wants us to want. Then there is no limit to what He can do through us – through YOU!

As followers of Christ, we have the same Holy Spirit power in us that said, “No thanks, death! Not today! We’re getting outta here!”

If your’re seeking God first – spending time with Him in His word, in prayer, in fellowship with other believers, and longing to know Him more intimately than ever before…

Your heart will be aligned with God’s will, and your desires will be rooted in Christ. Then something amazing will happen –