Dear Heavenly Father,
Just about everyone I know is rushing through their lives, trying to get to their promised land quicker. This journey through prayer and waiting isn’t the mammoth deliverance that You brought about through Moses in Old Testament times. All of us have mini versions of the Promised Land, and those versions are ever changing. So much so, that by the time we receive what we’ve been praying for, we’ve already got our sights set on something else.
Father, we are forever chasing a dream. We want the thing that we believe will fill us up and make us satisfied. All of us have a deep desire to express our highest, greatest, most fulfilled self. So, we relentlessly search and explore the things that might quench the desire for more that exists in us all.
Psalm 37:4(NLT) says, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” Many Christians that have been believers a very long time have never truly believed this verse in the depth of their souls. We all strive to be happy, and we find delight in many things, but we are not delighting in You to the point of waiting to be in Your presence with the anticipation of bated breath. Many of us don’t crave spending time with You or cling to You as we would our most favorite thing in all the world. We use our prayers to ask You to give us the next thing, when we‘ve not shown You a deep and abiding appreciation for what we have right now.
In Exodus 20:5(NLT), You commanded Your people, “You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.” A heart that doesn’t delight in You is cut-off from You, and therefore cut-off from all the things that add fruitfulness and bliss to life. We must learn that our dissatisfaction with our circumstances and conditions is often a sign of our willingness to divide our hearts and leave only a portion to You. But You will not tolerate this. You will not share our hearts with the idols of materiality, relationships, fear, money, religions, or any other thing that whittles down our delight in You.
You told Your people in Ezekiel 36:26(NLT), “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Heavenly Father, this must be our continual prayer, that You will give us a new heart, and put right desires in us, desires that cause us to more humbly walk in Your ways and to delight in Your presence. You don’t want us to give up on our dreams, You want us to relinquish them to Your care. Only You can shape and mold them so that they are well-pleasing to You and fulfilling to us as well.
Thank You for loving us so totally and completely. Thank You for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank You for the powerful gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit and thank You for Your many blessings and for leading and guiding us through Your matchless Word. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.