daily java

Daily Java: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  (Psalm 37:4).

The desires of your heart. Everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants a fulfilling job, a happy home, a good family, hobbies and friends and stuff. But the problem comes when all that is not enough.

There is an old song sung by Helen Reddy, I think, that says “Is that all there is?” she goes through several things in life, both good and bad and at the end of each thing asks, Is that all there is? The singer says, sure the stuff is big and important and heart breaking, but surely there is more.

It is only God who gives us what we need. That sound so churchy and simplistic. But it is true. Only God can fill what one called that God-shaped vacuum in your life.

One of the problems with our upcoming generation is that they cannot get enough. Have you noticed that the thrills are getting more dangerous? Theme parks are hard pressed to keep up with the escalating expectations of the younger bunch. The movies are hard pressed to keep up with the desire for more horror, more gore, more violence, just more in general. The stunts at skate parks are getting more and more dangerous, more and more alcohol is being consumed, on and on.

I know that my generation started a lot of this by the experimentation in sex and drugs and music and a bunch of other things, but the problem is, the more you get, the more you want. The more you experience, the more you need to experience to maintain the same high.

And when that high is only physical, it has to be higher and higher. The only real satisfaction is in God. He alone can give you the real desires of your heart.

I have always maintained that music is a call from God. When a musician answers that call in God he is happy and fulfilled. When he doesn’t, when he tries to answer it in the world, he almost always self-destructs. Look at the number of incredibly talented musicians that have died many times from their own hands.

The other day, I heard a very talented guitarist and singer that reminded me of a happy Jimi Hendrix. He had found his music in the Lord and it looked like it. He had found the desire of his heart, and it was hard for me not to envy him.

Others find that desire in other ways. It may be in mission work, or in the joy of carpentry or marriage or anything as a Christ-follower, just serving him. It may be large, it may be small, but it will be the desire of their heart.

The desire of our heart is not necessarily that which we want. It is that which fills us, which satisfies and completes us. Only in him can we be truly be satisfied in life. Everything else is temporary and ultimately useless. He will give you what lasts and really makes you happy.

That fulfillment may not be what you thought it was. In fact, it rarely ever is. What really makes you happy is not necessarily what you set out to find. But if you accept God and his will in your life and his leading and, as the scripture says, delight yourself in him, you will be happy.