Desires of our heart - by Laura Duke

I have just started reading a book called ‘Counterfeit Gods’ by Timothy Keller. So far I’ve conquered the introduction, and it’s certainly got me thinking. 

The book is about idolatry and how it is so much more than bowing and sacrificing to statues. It’s about where our focus is in life and what the desires of our heart are. 

In Romans 1:18-32, the people traded worshipping the glory of God for worshipping the things of the world, and God gave them over to the desires of their hearts. How could the greatest punishment for the people was for God to give them what they most deeply desired? Because what they so deeply desired and wanted was not Him, but idols. 

This brought another passage to my mind - Psalm 37:4. Here David writes ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’. I’ve tended to struggle with this passage and think that God doesn’t always give you what you want. But I think I’ve not really noticed the first phrase - ‘Delight yourself in the Lord-’. If we are delighting ourselves in the Lord, then the deepest desire of our heart is....Him! Not anything else, not idols, not things of this world, but Him!

The verse could read ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you Himself!’ 

I just wanted to remind myself and you all today to delight yourself in the Lord above all else. Don’t sacrifice yourself to the idols of our world, money, appearance, popularity, acclaim or success. Give your all to God, and He will give His all to you!