I believe Psalm 37:4 has been misrepresented by so many people. I hear people all the time who are trying to preach prosperity use this example. The verse says “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
And if that is all you read then that is the way it sounds. You would think that no matter your desire, God will grant that. He is in a way your sugar daddy through that definition but that is so far from the truth. In reality, I believe that as you grow closer to God, his desires become your desires and then he gives you the desires of your heart. Let’s take a look at several verses surrounding that verse:
Psalm 37:3-9
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth.
If you really read all those verses in context, you will see that you have to be a certain way for him to give you the desires of your heart. You have to be growing toward God. When you grow toward him, your heart changes. As your heart changes you begin to feel differently about many things including your current desires.
See many people want many things but God realizes that if he gives that to you right now, it will hurt you so he allows you to grow so that his desires becomes your desires. When you get to that point, everything changes and God doesn’t mind Blessing you because you will use his Blessings for good and he will get the Glory.
Does this mean you shouldn’t go after success in life? Actually no it doesn’t. In fact it means the opposite because as you grow in spirit, your heart changes and what you do with your success changes. Are there successful people who don’t live this way? Of course but they do not and will never have the joy in their life the way you do if you follow where God is leading you.
I have met many successful people over the years and you can really tell the difference between someone who lives the Bible in their everyday life and someone who doesn’t. Granted you can tell that also with people who aren’t successful but right now we are talking about success and your ultimate desires.
For many years I thought I wanted to live in a 16,000+ square foot home but as I have grown spiritually, I have come to realize that it will not make me happy. No material possession will do that. Only God can keep you happy.
When you buy material things to give you happiness, that can’t last because soon you need the next best thing and then the next best thing after that. It is a never ending cycle that will eat you alive because you can never get enough.
My definition of materialism is buying material possessions to fulfill a spiritual need. There isn’t anything wrong with having material possessions as long as they do not have you. Many times instead of the people owning the possessions, in reality the possessions own them.
How many times have you seen someone buy a brand new car and their child accidentally fall against the car, what do these parents do? Do they not SCOLD the child? Of course they do and I have seen many parents do this. They say things like I work hard for this and all you can do is mess it up or something to that nature. They plant in their kids minds that they can’t do anything right.
It is ONLY a possession, it is not our life. That car now has become this person’s God. Usually that happens when someone buys a car they really can’t afford because they finance it for many years. Their car payment is more than some people’s house payment.
There are many examples like this I could use but I used the car one because it is the easiest to show how things can get out of whack. Another crazy thing is they tell their kid they work hard for that but who gives them the power to create wealth? Is it not God who does?
They scold their child for doing that so what if God scolded you for mishandling money? Would he be able to scold you heavily on that issue? Or what if he scolded you on how you live your life? Are you living your life the way God intended you to live? You say NO but yet you expect your child to live that way? It’s time we see things for what they are and that is just a possession to be used not something to become a God.
Living a God-Inspired Life,
Chris Benton