The Desires of Thy Heart
He test of one’s character is in the things one delights in. Hence also one’s desires are prophetic of one’s future. We will grow into that which we long for. In one of the Psalms we read, “Delight thyself in the Lord; and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.” Most of us would like to have this promise for ourselves. In the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment is the strange story of Aladdin’s lamp. The son of a poor widow in China became possessed of a magic lamp and ring, which commanded the services of certain powerful genii. By rubbing the lamp with the ring, Aladdin got whatever he wished, and grew rich and great. But that is only an impossible story of magic. Yet here is a promise which seems to tell us of a way in which we can get everything we wish. 1
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“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.” It is not by rubbing a ring on a lamp that we can get what we desire. Religion is not magic. Simon Magus thought it was, and tried to buy the secret for money. But it is not thus that desires for life’s good things can be gratified. We all have wants which it would please us beyond measure to have supplied. It would mean a great deal to us to know a way in which we could have all our desires realized. And that is what we seem to have here. “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.” What is it to delight ourselves in the Lord.’* It means to love God, to love to please him, to love his ways, his service, his wilL We know what it is to delight ourselves in a human friend. We love our friend so much that when we are with him we are perfectly happy, have no wish ungratified, need nothing else to complete our contentment. This is the ideal in marriage — that the two who wed shall delight in each other. They should [34]
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meet each other’s desires and yearnings. They should be one in interest, in purpose, in all the aims of life. A young woman, considering the question of marriage and speaking of the young man she had in mind, writes: “I love him very dearly and yet I hesitate to give my life into his keeping. He is noble, kind, worthy, but in some respects he is far from being the man I always had in mind in thinking of marriage. There is something lacking in him. There is a need in my life which is not fully met in him — perfect union in consecration to God.” Evidently there is not yet full, undisturbed delight in this friend. There is not full accord, there is not perfect confidence, there is not absolute trust. All these elements are essential in perfect delight in a friend. To delight in God implies also all the quali- ties of love, trust, confidence, accord of will. Connected with this promise in the Psalm is a cluster of counsels which belong together — “Trust in the Lord,” “Delight thyself also in the Lord,”” Commit thy way unto the [35]
W^t (att TBeautifttl Lord,” “Rest in the Lord.” You cannot de-. light yourself in the Lord if you do not trust him. Trust implies confidence. John leaned upon his Master’s breast that dark night of the betrayal. The distress of the disciples was terrible. It looked as if all their hopes had fallen into ruin. Yet behold John leaning on the Master’s bosom, calm, quiet, unafraid. Jesus sought to quiet his disciples that same hour with the words,” Let not
- your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.” They were to trust without question, without doubt, without fear. Trust is necessary to delight.
“Commit thy way unto the Lord.” There will come hours of uncertainty in every life, hours when we shall not know what to do, which way to take, where to find help. Then we learn that the Lord is not only our Saviour from sin, but also the God who orders all our ways. There seem to be a great many people who trust God for the salvation of their souls, but who have not learned to trust him with the choosing of their ways, [36]
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the direction of their affairs, the care of their lives. They worry continually. We have not learned the full meaning of trust until we have formed the habit of committing our ways without question unto the Lord. The reason for worrying, which is so common a habit, is that people do not roll their way upon the Lord. If only they knew the blessed secret they would not worry any more. Think what it would mean to worrying people if they understood this, if instead of being anxious about every little thing, they” would take it to the Lord and leave it there. If we commit our way unto the Lord, we will not go on making blunders, we will no longer spoil the web by ignoring the pattern and weaving our own way.
Another of the words of trust in the old Psalm is, “Rest in the Lord.” A marginal reading is, “Be silent to the Lord.” Never answer the Lord in the way of protest against his guidance, never question the wisdom and goodness of his providence. Never in the day of cross-bearing or trial ask, [37 1 “Why?” Some of us are not silent to God when he does things that are hard, when he leads us in the ways that are rough and steep. To be silent to the Lord means complete submission to his will, without question, without doubt, without fear, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.”
These are suggestions of the meaning of the words, “Delight thyself also in the Lord.” We are to be at home with God. The ideal home is a place of perfect love, perfect accord, perfect confidence. There is no strife, no doubt, no fear, no bitterness. Men are telling us these days that we should get and keep our lives in tune with God. This means that we should fall in line with God in everything. We are not to demand that God shall bring his way down to suit our whims and fancies; but rather that we shall always bring our feelings, our desires, our ambitions, into harmony with his will.
The lesson is not easy. A good mah said the
other day,” It takes a long time to learn to Cie yesfirejS of Civ l$tan
he kind.” It takes so long, indeed, that not many persons really ever learn it. There are not many kind people — that is, people who are always kind to everyone, to disagreeable people as well as those who are agreeable, to enemies as well as friends, to bad as well as good — and that is what the New Testament means when it tells us to be kind. It takes a gi’eat while to learn to be kind. The same is time of every phase of the will of God. It takes a great while to larn to be patient, .to learn to be absolutely true, to learn to trust God, to be rejoicing followers of Christ, to be helpers of others. Nevertheless, these are the lessons that are set for us and which we arc to learn. It will take all our life to learn them well, but really to learn these lessons is better than all riches, all power, all fame.
This is what it is to delight ourselves in God, to find our joy in him. The promise is that if we have this delight in him, God will give us the desires of our heart, the things we long for. This may seem rather an unusual [39]
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promise, but it is really given over and over again in the Bible. The Lord said to Solomon, as he began his reign, “Ask what I shall give thee.” Anything Solomon would choose for his life portion, God said he would give him. In the New Testament, we have this from the Master himself: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Could any promise of God be fuller, more unreserved, more absolute?
We must remember that one condition is, “Delight in the Lord.” You love God supremely. You have committed your way to him without doubt or question. You are trusting him without fear. You are being silent to him, accepting his will for you without a murmur of insubmission, never asking why or how. This attitude of mind and heart will make all your desires holy. It will silence in your heart all unworthy wishes. It will quell [40]
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all sinful longirgs. You will not long for evil things, or for worldly things. You will seek God’s guidance in all desires for earthly things. It is not always the things we want that we ought to desire — the things we want might work our ruin if we had them. We ought to desire the things that will bless us in our inner life, and make us beautiful and Christlike. We cannot ourselves be sure as to the wisdom of our desires and therefore we must refer them to the will of God. When the promise is given that God will give us the desires of our heart, it is implied that these desires will be such as God approves. Desires turned toward God are prayers. Some people suppose that they are praying only when they are on their knees, or speaking to God in some reverent attitude of devotion. But many of the most real and most acceptable prayers are never voiced in words. They are only breathings of the soul, longings of the heart, yearnings and aspirations which cannot be put into language. One of the Lord’s Beatitudes was for those who have [41] longings in their hearts, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Hungerings and thirstings after God, desires to be better, longings for more holiness, wishes for closer communion with God, are prayers which God promises to answer. Hunger is a mark of health. Not to hunger any more indicates illness. It is so in the body, it is so in the mind, it is so in the soul. The true spiritual life is full of longings.
We should remember, too, that whether we will or not, the things we desire are really given to us. We get them into our life, and they make us what we are. It is so of pure and good desires.
“The thiTig we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.”
A holy longing makes us holy. Longing for Christ brings us into Christ’s presence and fills us with his spirit, his love. Longing for righteousness makes us righteous. But the same is true also of evil desires. If we let [42]
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sinful wishes into our mind and cherish them, we will grow corrupt in heart. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If you, by day and by night, cherish wrong desires, impure feelings, unholy imaginings, you will get your desires, and your life will rot. Let wrong, lustful desires stay in your mind, and you will soon be, in the sight of angels, a mass of corruption and death. We should keep a double watch upon our thoughts and desires, for they are making us the man or woman we shall be by and by. Keep your thoughts clean and white and they will build up in you a temple of snowy purity. Keep 3’our desires fixed upon holy things, right things, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely-, then you will have the desires of your hearts — God will give them unto you — and they will build up your life into beauty and holiness.
The great need for us, therefore, is that we cultivate our desires into holiness and Christlikeness. What are the dominant desires in your heart to-day? What are you living for? [43]
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What are jour most earnest wishes? When you are alone, and your mind is free, where do your thoughts turn? If the Lord came to you in a vision, as he came to Solomon at Gibeon, and said, “Ask what I shall give you, what I shall do for you,” what would your answer be? If you delight yourself in the Lord, then he will give you what you desire.
This is a thousand times better than Aladdin’s lamp. Abide in Christ, let Christ’s words abide in you, and no desire of yours will remain unsatisfied. That will be happiness. All life will then be a song — fullness of good here, eternal blessing in heaven.
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“Never in a costly palace did I rest on golden bed, Never in a hermit’s cavern have I eaten idle bread.
i’Born within a lowly stable, where the cattle round me stood Trained a carpenter in Nazareth, I have toiled and found it good.
“They who tread the path of labor follow where my feet have trod; They who work without complaining do the holy will of God.
“Where the many toil together, there am I among my own; Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with him alone.
“/, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell amid the daily strife, I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the sacrament of life.”