The Desires of Your Heart - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, January 23rd. You know the saying, be careful what you wish for. Today, you'll be encouraged to avoid aiming for goals that bypass God. Let's learn to set godly aspirations in part one of The Desires of Your Heart. What are the desires of your heart?

Second, let me ask you a question. How would you be impacted if you got exactly what you desire? Would it draw you closer to the Lord or would you find yourself being estranged from Him? What motivates you to have the desires that you have? And how will they affect you if you were to receive them? That is, if you're able to obtain them, what kind of effect do you think it'll have upon yourself and upon others around you? Do you know how to get the desires of your heart? Now, let me ask you this. What are you willing to give to get the desires of your heart?

What are you willing to do? Do you really know how to have the desires of your heart? I know you've heard about that passage of Scripture that says, delight yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires of your heart.

What in the world does that mean? Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message, the desires of your heart. We all have them.

There's nothing wrong with it. How do we make those desires become a reality? Can we really and truly ask God to help us?

It depends upon what the desire is. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Psalm thirty-seven. And I want us to read these first eight verses together. Psalm thirty-seven, a passage of Scripture that oftentimes people quote and they very zealously and joyously and happily quote it. And then I wonder sometimes if they really and truly understand exactly what it means because oftentimes it's quoted and those desires never become a reality. So let's begin, if you will, in this first verse of the thirty-seventh Psalm.

Do not fret because of evildoers. Be not envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noon day. 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 carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath.

Do not fret. It leads only to evildoing. Now listen to that awesome promise. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. So first of all you have to decide what these desires are.

But I want us to think about something for a moment. Let's think about the reality of this whole idea of desire. Because the truth is our desires reveal who we are. For example your desires reveal your character. Your desires reveal your motivations in life. Your purpose in life.

Your plans for your life. They reveal how we think. They reveal the things that motivate us in life. They reveal the direction of our life. And they also reveal the degree of purity in our life. Either these thoughts are pure thoughts or they're impure thoughts.

Either they're godly thoughts or ungodly thoughts. Either they are desires that fit the will and plan and purpose of God for our life or they don't. And so the truth is our desires tell a lot about us.

So if you were to list all the desires of your heart on a piece of paper and give it to someone, it wouldn't take them very long to figure out what kind of person you are. And so the truth is we all have desires. The issue is what do these desires tell about us? But primarily the thing we're most interested in is how do I make these desires become a reality in my life? Now there are a lot of people who have many desires and the problem is that they've never sat down and decided what is it in life I really and truly want. And so they go through life and their desires change with every passing day and sometime every week or sometimes every month and now naturally our desires are going to change. But I mean those big desires in life. And so oftentimes people say, well, this is what I want.

No, I think that's what I want. Or I want this or that or him or her or this experience or that experience or whatever it might be. And oftentimes they don't realize what's impacting their continuous changing of desire is the influence of other people. They see what someone else has and that's what they desire.

They see where someone else has been. That's what they desire. They see who someone else has and that's what they desire. And so the desires come and go and they change.

Probably one of the primary reasons is they've never sat down and just pondered the whole issue. What is it in life that I want? What do I want out of life? What are my real, true, genuine desires? When it's all over, what do I want to look back and say, well, I desired this and this is what happened in my life. I desired this and this is the joy and the contentment and the peace and the happiness and the fulfillment and all that I looked for in life. All these desires that I had, look at the awesome contribution they made to my life. Well, it would be wonderful if all of our desires did contribute to our life, but sometimes they don't.

But if you've never stopped to ponder what is it that I really want? How can you honestly ask God to give the desires of your heart? So you read this passive Scripture.

It's very clear what it says, very simple what it says. But what it says to me also is that you and I have to be careful what we desire. Somebody says, well, you better be careful what you ask God to give you because if you ask the wrong thing and He gives you the wrong thing, then you'll be in trouble. You never have to worry about God giving you the wrong thing. What you have to be concerned about is you're manipulating your circumstances with, listen, with the tremendous help of Satan to help you get what you want that is not what God wanted you to have.

So when you come to this passive Scripture, this is not a sort of a divine handout. This is just God will just tell me what you want and I'll give you any desire of your heart. There's some very strong requirements for getting the desires of our heart.

And oftentimes people have not stopped to think through what is it clearly that I really want. So as you think about your own life and you could say to God, God, hear the desires of my heart. Are they clear enough in your mind that you could write them out?

They may be all one word, sentences or phrases. I want this or that or him or her or yonder or whatever it might be. Do you understand yourself enough to know what you really desire in life? And there are many people who go through life and will never be able to tell you this is really what I really wanted. They're just into this and into that and into this and into that and things don't work out and they can't figure out why. They never stop to answer the question and ask the question, God, what do you want for my life? What are your desires for my life? And so therefore they do it on their own and they make one big mess after the other. Now, is there anything wrong with having desires?

No, indeed. Desires are powerful. Desires are motivating. God is the one who's given us desires in our life. And He's the one who desires that you and I achieve and accomplish and that we reach the God-given potential that He placed within us. Every single one of us has potential for our life. What is the potential you have? If you don't have any strong desires, you've never considered what you're capable of doing or what God wants you to do or what He wants you to desire, how will you ever reach your potential? How will you ever know what you could do?

How will you ever accomplish anything in life without strong desires to make it happen? Now, He says that He desires in first Timothy chapter two that all men and women be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. God has strong desires for each one of us. He desires that you and I know Him, that we obey Him, that we walk in oneness with Him. He desires that you and I have intimate fellowship with Him, that we spend time in solitude with Him. He desires that we pray to Him, depend upon Him, trust in Him, wait upon Him, rely upon Him, depend upon Him. He has many desires for us and every single desire that God has for us is a good desire because these desires come from a good God.

The problem is we don't even desire the good things for ourselves that God desires for us. But there's a warning here. And that warning is given to us in Scripture in first Timothy, in Titus and second Peter. And each of these verses of Scripture, for example, is a warning about our desires. For example, in first Timothy, the apostle Paul warns us against foolish and wrong desires. And then in Titus, he warns us against in that second chapter and twelfth verse, worldly desires. And second Peter, also in chapter two, in verse ten, corrupt desires.

The eighteenth verse, he talks about fleshly desires. So there are good desires and then there are worldly desires. They're corrupting desires, desires that corrupt us, desires that destroy us, foolish, empty desires that people have. The world is intoxicated by desires that are empty, that bring them no fulfillment, no joy, no peace, and no security. And so for a person to have their life filled with, controlled by, and remember that lust is simply desire out of control.

Lust is simply desire out of control. And many people live by the lust of their heart. Their desires are out of control. They desire this and they desire that and they're willing to do most anything to satisfy the desire of their heart. Then they wonder why they're not contented. They wonder why they're not fulfilled. They look and they say, well, here are the desires of my life and I've always had these desires. Here's what I've always wanted to do.

But what? They never stopped to ask God, their Heavenly Father, what is Your will? What is Your desire for my life? You created me.

I belong to You. What did You put me here for? What's Your purpose, Your plan, Your desire? What's Your will for my life? And my friend, listen, no matter who you are, what you have, and what's your position or potential in life, apart from Jesus Christ, you will never have contentment. You will never know real true joy. You will never have genuine security. These, listen, contentment and joy and peace and security you will never have apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You cannot. God does not give it and Satan cannot create it in your life. It is the author of a loving God who desires that you and I desire the best which He's prepared for us. Sometimes you and I don't know what the desires of our heart are. We think we do.

Now watch this. If you and I knew the true genuine desires of our heart, we wouldn't tell Him that we want certain things because that's not really what we want. That's what we think we desire. And so what does God do? He hears me tell Him what my desire is.

Listen, with a very limited knowledge that I have. And then He answers that based on this awesome infinite knowledge that He has, that He knows what you and I really desire in life. If we ask Him for something that would bring us great pain, great suffering, great loss, great hurt, God knows that that's not really what we desire. That's what we think we desire.

So what does He do? He gives us what He knows we really desire. That's why it's so important that you and I sift our desires through the will of God, through the mind of God, through the heart of God. What do you want me to desire?

Lord, this is the desire of my heart. Does this fit your will? Can this stand the scrutiny of Scripture? When I look at this desire and I look at the Word of God, do I find anything in Your Word that forbids this in my life? Is this permissible, but not just permissible? Lord, Father, do you take pleasure in giving me the desire of my heart?

Yes, He does. When the desire fits His will and His plan, He takes pleasure in giving us the desires of our heart. So here's the question. What do you take in delight in? Your desires or in God? Do you know what it means to delight yourself?

I've just explained it. We are delighted in the truth that we're filled with His Spirit. We're delighted, Father, I'm delighted that you have redeemed me, sanctified me. I'm delighted that you've justified me. I'm delighted that you've sanctified me. I'm delighted that you have glorified me in your mind already. Delighted in who you are, what you do, how you work and the amazing miraculous things and how you control everything that is in existence and how you're in absolute control.

Delighted to see what you've done, delighted to see what you're going to do. Is that the emphasis of our thinking? No, we just want something. And some of our desires are very godly.

Some of them may sort of skirt real true godliness. And so what does He do? He helps us to understand that that's close, but that's not quite it. Because He's always looking out for our good. And so He says, we're to delight ourselves in Him and we're to commit it to Him.

Now think about it. There's some things you can't commit to Him. There's some desires, if they're ungodly desires, you listen, if it means transfers, you know what?

You may transfer it to Him, but it gets right back in your face. But the simple reason, He's not going to accept a desire that does not fit what's best for you because He is committed to your best. He's committed to that.

So we can't argue with God. We can't say, well, now, Lord, you did this or you, He is committed to our best. So if we don't have the desires of our hearts, it's not His fault. Am I willing and can I really and truly talk to Him about this particular desire of my life? Can I really roll it over to Him and say, this is the desire of my heart, putting it in your hands?

Some things we can, some things we cannot. He desires to take them. He desires to handle the desires of our heart because He wants the best for us. Our Heavenly Father has the best plan for your life.

It may not look like the best plan. The desire of your heart may look like it's a million miles away, but you know what? He will show you that the desire of your heart, when He gets it tweaked just right, you'll not be able to look back and think, well Lord, in Your great wisdom, You knew exactly what I desired.

Thank You for not giving me what I thought I desired and for giving me what You knew I desired. That's the kind of God we have. Now, certainly God has given us the desires of our heart many times and sometimes He's withheld them from us, but always for specific reasons.

So let me just give you a little warning here. You may have some desires that are not God's will, but you think they are and so you're pursuing this desire in your life. If you're pursuing a desire of your heart that you think is the will of God, but it's not the will of God, remember this, He loves you enough that He will derail whatever's out there in order to protect you. But listen, when He sends you a signal that this is not of Him and you ignore the signal, you suffer the consequences. When you're committed to Him as much as you know how to be committed to Him and the desire of your heart happens not to be His desire for your life, you know what He will do? He's not going to scold you.

You really and truly are committed. You just believe for certain this is what the Lord wants, but it's not what He wants for your life. He will protect you by giving you the desire of your heart that He knows is the genuine desire of your heart, which may not be anything like what you thought it was.

That's the love of God. I give you this warning. Be careful what you desire. If you desire what is not the will of God for your life and you manipulate the circumstance, and there are all kinds of ways of manipulating circumstances, whether it's financial or relationships, whatever it might be, all kinds of ways of manipulating things to get what you want. Remember that you can expect three things, disappointment, pain, and loss every time, every single time. When you start manipulating your circumstances without having the desires of God in your life, disappointment, pain, and loss.

Sometimes many other effects, but at least those three. Now listen to this in light of that. Delight yourself in the Lord. Take pleasure in Him and He'll give you the desires of your heart. What you must do is delighting yourself in Him and rolling it over to Him and trusting it into His hands and then resting and then waiting and watching, observing how He operates to bring about this desire in your life. To me personally, one of the most gratifying, one of the most faith building, one of the most encouraging experiences in life is to present my desire to the Lord and not be thinking about it all the time, not be preoccupied with it, but to be preoccupied with Him. Committed to Him, trust Him, rest in that, and then to watch how He maneuvers the circumstances of our life to make it turn out, listen, far better than I expected, far better than I deserve and really far, far better than I even ask for. That's the character of the God whom you and I serve.

And so I would simply ask you a question. What's the big desire of your heart above everything else? Are you willing to stop your manipulating, get preoccupied with our Heavenly Father? Roll it over on Him because you can't make it happen. Trust Him with it. Rest in it. You've laid down your manipulation and then observe how your Heavenly Father brings about the desire of your heart in a way you would never have figured, seven thousand years which you have figured He would have done it that way. Thank you for listening to The Desires of Your Heart. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.