Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

If any of you have known me for any period of time and I have dropped you a note in the mail, you know I sign my name with this verse. I can’t remember when I selected this particular verse. I know I was in my teens. Lots of people I know had verses to sign with their names. “I need one of those, too,” I thought – completely forgetting that if-every-one-else-jumps-off-a-cliff-would-you? And as I was romantic as any teenage girl, I thought this would be the ideal verse. Some sort of guarantee of a bright and glorious future beyond my wildest dreams.

Well, I have to say that my future since then has been bright, glorious, and beyond my wildest dreams. It’s also contained the hardest trials, deepest scars and greatest challenges. But as I’m sure you know – and as the Lord taught me – there are two essential truths to this verse:

1. You must delight yourself in the Lord. (Not friends, sports, fun or – my greatest weakness – books.)
2. He will give you the desires of your heart. Not you will receive every desire your deceitful little heart can wish upon, but the desires of your heart will become what He wants for you.

It’s not a very difficult confession to sit here and tell all of you that I have not kept this verse extremely well over the past fifteen or sixteen years. I have not always delighted myself in the Lord. And I have begged (pleaded, cried, sobbed, shouted, etc.) my own desires until I’m hoarse. And every time the Lord has taught me one thing: “Trust me, Melissa. My way is best. My desires for you are far beyond those wildest dreams. Trust me, you’ll love it.”

And I have. It hasn’t always been easy. In fact, I once felt as if I was walking through hell itself. But it was necessary. For even now, I am beholding the fruit of that “valley of the shadow of death”.

What I find most amazing about this verse right now is that it works in reverse. As my life unfolds in different ways, I find God knows my desires better than I know them myself. He fulfills longings I had no idea were there. And as He does so, I delight myself in Him even more.

Truly, my God is amazing.