Dancing in the Light

I John 1:7 "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

Name:
Location: North Platte, Nebraska, United States

I am a christian wife, mother and grandmother. I am a licensed Social worker and a licensed Christian counselor. I am most proud of the relationships I have with God, my family and friends all over the world. I have been blessed beyond my dreams.

Monday, April 14, 2008

". . .your heart's desire."

Psalm 37:4 "Delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desire." This has long been my favorite verse. I find myself singing it throughout the day, reminding myself to focus on delighting in Him and occasionally, I must admit, checking and re-checking what exactly is on the "HD List". The older I get the more changes I notice in my heart's desire list and to be honest, the fewer items there are on the list. I think about the verse, the list and mostly the delighting--often. In fact, most of today was spent in revelling in the joy that comes from belonging to Him and being one of His! Not a day goes by that I am not blessed far, far beyond that which I deserve and yet, He keeps giving and blessing and loving me all the more.
As I was thinking about this today, I had a phone call from a very old friend. She is not a member of the church, much to my sadness, but our friendship has remained true. As is her custom, her phone call began with the new car she'd purchased, then progressed to the house they are building once they return from their cruise. Over and over again, intermingled with lists of more and more new purchases, she told me just how busy and how very happy she was. She said that for once in her life, she "had almost everything she wanted" and she said "it must be Karma".
It was interesting that like me, she also had her heart's desire. It made me think. I wondered if perhaps everyone gets what is on their list. Okay, I didn't wonder it for long--after all, I am a social worker. Well, perhaps she'd simply adjusted her list to match what she already had----nah! That is the secret to contentment and I didn't mention that she still had some things on her wishlist. So, how could it be, that both of us, living entirely different lives, could both be content and both feel we had received our heart's desire?
I remembered that we'd had similar conversations in the past----and her list five years ago had many of the very same items on it. She was in love (different husband, that time), they had just purchased a new Escalade. had moved into a new house and were planning a trip to Vegas. If I remember correctly, even then, she thought she'd received "almost everything she ever wanted". And she sounded very very happy--truly she did--both times.
And so I wondered, if she wasn't ever really happy---or if she just became unhappy? Or if her tastes changed? If the joy she felt just went away and her heart no longer desired the same things. No, I think what happened was the things she delighted in, the things that brought her joy were earthly things. Earthly things, according to scripture, are disposable and corruptible. So it would make sense that should it be corruptible things that delight our hearts, the feeling of joy and contentment would be transient and sort of up for renegotiation, if you know what I mean. I believe we can convince ourselves to be happy--that we can talk ourselves into believing our life is good when it is really not and that we can be convicted that a new car, a new dress, a new attitude, a new man, a new address, whatever, will be just what we need to get just what we want. And as we continue to delight in worldly things, it is the worldly desires that get fulfilled-----and then fade away.
Notice the part of the text that tells us just who to delight in--"Delight in the Lord"---and when we do--our heart's desires change---when we focus on the spiritual--it is the spiritual things that make us happy! And as we continue delighting in Him, He delights in giving us our heart's desires. The desires of a spiritual person--the desires that never fade and never die--for they are eternal, redemptive and beautiful.
Blessings,
Neva
PS--Thank you for your prayers--I am doing well--unless this post makes absolutely no sense to anyone and then . . . I am still on pain meds! :)
n

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neva,
It makes sense to me! It is a beautiful post! You are right--when we take pleasure from the world, we often desire it more and more.
Glad you are doing so well.

Love
Pat

8:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Satan also gives us our hearts desire when all it takes to please us is worldly things.

Great points and great post--and i am also thankful for your recovery

Carlos

9:35 PM  
Blogger Amy S. Grant said...

Neva,

I am so thankful you are okay. I'm slow getting over here to read about your health situation!

I love this post. And it isn't obvious you are on pain meds, either!

10:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ahhh the desires of an unregenerate heart change with every beat and the desires of a born again heart grow deeper as the blood of Christ flows through our souls

12:05 AM  
Blogger Traci said...

If we delight in the Lord and we get our heart's desire, isn't our heart's desire to delight in the Lord?

And I'm not even on pain meds!!

8:07 AM  
Blogger Kathy said...

Whoopppeeee! Neva's back! YAY! Now THAT makes me happy! :)

Happiness cannot be a permanent status, ergo - the unredeemed constantly seek to fill that void that only God can fill.

Joy and Delight for the redeemed bring contentment to the redeemed of the LORD, for He has filled that void to overflowing, continuing to fill it.

The unredeemed continually search for their goal,never finding it.
The redeemed continually receive their goal from a loving God.

Great post, dear Neva! [again!] :)

10:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the part about as you get older your list of hearts desires change and the list becomes smaller. Knowing you, I would bet the things on your list are not things at all but people and souls. As long as I have known you, you have delighted in bringing the lost to Christ. That is why God continues to show you that He delights in you!
You are an inspiration!

Love ya
Kel

10:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The changes in what we delight has a direct correlation to the things our heart desires---absolutely right!
Prayers for a continued recovery!

Dan

11:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen! So happy to see you back blogging and encouraging us.

Rachel

11:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Delighting in the Lord-what could be better, truly?

I am still praying for you dear friend. You have been in our bulletin and on our prayer chains. We will keep you there until your recovery is complete. Have a blessed day, dear one.

Corinne

4:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Praying for your continued recovery--hoping you will up and blogging soon. I miss your daily dose of wisdom and encouragement.

Mary

5:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

PS---I understood the post completely. Couldn't even tell about the meds (grin)


Mary

5:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems that one of our heart's desires has come to pass. You are back with us. Thank God for His wisdom and healing powers.
I really enjoyed this post. I think that you said it when you mentioned that not only as we get older, but also as we delight in the Lord, our list gets shorter. On the other hand, if our delight is in this world, we will, as Christ tried to tell the Samaritan woman at the well, have an unquenchable thirst.
Only Christ can truly quench us.
Thank you for being you, and for letting our Lord use you in the way that He does.

5:26 PM  
Blogger Larissa said...

Makes complete sense and I enjoyed it. I'm glad you're doing good. I really do hope you can come visit soon! Not only for my kids sakes, but I would like to see you too. Love ya!

6:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Desires that spiritual, eternal and redemptive, how could we delight in any other kind?


Jarrod

9:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neva, I just finished reading the past few posts, had no idea you were going through such a frightening struggle. The wife and I have added you to our prayer list and will continue to pray God's healing hand on you. God Bless you sister,

Jarrod

9:46 PM  

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