Do you ever notice when you are reading a book that you are seeing what is written on the page, but a few minutes later you realize that you forgot what you just read? It is pretty obvious when that happens, right? Well what about actually understanding what you just read? I've even noticed that I do this sometimes. This reminds me of something that I've noticed many people misunderstand: Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." People twist this verse in several ways.
One, this verse is often mistaken in that God will give you all of the desires of your heart. If your desires do not line up with His Word then He is not going to give it to you. This doesn't mean that you should take it into your own hands. It means if it doesn't line up with His Word then your in disobedience when going against Him. Taking desires into your own hands can be dangerous, period. When we give Him the driver's seat and put Him at the center of our lives we start to "look" like Him. The more time we spend with God the more we are going know Him and resemble the acrions of a Christian.
It is just like when we hang around someone a lot we pick up traits that that person has. That is also why we have to be careful with who we accompany ourselves with as Proverbs 13:20 says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm." It is dentrimental to our wellbeing. If someone is continuously treating another like their punching bag or is engaging in harmful activities it will affect you. It affects you negatively and the effect of that relationship is only going to cause you heartache. That isn't the only reason we are warned against the kind of friends we hang around. 1st Corinthians 15:33 also warns us saying, "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good character.'." That is guaranteed when you hang around someone long enough giving way to their ways as well. In other words it ruins good morals. I know that someone wouldn't put that at stake if they truly valued their morals and beliefs. This is what brings me to my second reason.
Delighting in someone means pleauring them. "In pleasuring the Lord He will give you the desires of your heart." Pleasuring , or pleasing if you will would entail obeying Him. Pleasing ourselves in the Lord would mean being content in what He has given us and also being content in our relationship with Him. Only then will He give us the desires of our hearts assuming that they do line up with His Word. Thirdly, it may not be His plan for us and we need to rest assure that HIS plans for us are greater than the plans we have for ourselves. That is when we need to put this verse into context. Psalm 37:5 states, "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." As I have stated earlier the people you consume yourself with is going to be what you start to resemble after. As you spend time in the Word and in prayer your heart will change and the more you are going to be shaped after Him. Lastly, you have to understand that belief differs from faith. You can believe in God and not have faith that He'll bring you through. Faith in God means trusting that whatever He does give you and whatever He doesn't is for a reason. It's not just a flippant reason, it's a dang good one. And guess what else? He wants to be your number one desire.
