MY DELIGHT

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” – Psalm 37:4

For many years I understood this verse to be saying: “Be faithful to do what God wants and He will answer your prayers for the stuff you want”, but that’s not at all what this verse is saying.

One way we know that this isn’t want the verse means is by simply looking around us. There are hundreds, maybe millions, of sincere, humble, God-fearing Christians all around us who do not always get what they want. They get cancer. They get fired. They get cheated on by their spouses. Their children die suddenly. Their dreams of fame, fortune or success never come to pass. Therefore, this verse isn’t promising that God will give us whatever we want as long as we make Him happy.

This materialistic, self-centered, nihilistic reading of the passage says more about our own hearts than anything else, really. For years, this is exactly how I took this verse, so I’m the first to admit that my filters were cloudy on this one.

So, what does the verse mean? I think it speaks for itself, really.

“Delight yourself in the Lord…”

What does it mean to make the Lord your delight? Doesn’t it mean to place Him at the center of your life; to meditate on Him day and night; to take real joy in knowing Him more and more each day?

Yes, of course it does.

So, if you and I were to make God the center of our lives, and take joy in His presence every single day, wouldn’t “the desires of [our] heart” be to experience even more of Him?

Yes, I believe it would be.

So, we might paraphrase Psalm 37:4 like this: “Make the Lord the desire of your heart and He will fulfill your desire for more of Himself.”

At least, that’s how I read it now.

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UNSATISFIED

Have you ever felt unsatisfied in your relationship with Jesus? Have you ever been frustrated with your own spiritual walk with Him? Perhaps you assumed that it was because you weren’t a member of a better church, or maybe you were convinced it was because you weren’t spiritual enough, or praying enough, or reading the Bible enough?

Recently I had an epiphany of sorts as I listened to a friend of mine express a similar frustration. What I realized was this: We will never be fully satisfied spiritually until we see Jesus face to face.

And that’s a good thing, by the way.  

I think it is only because we are unsatisfied that we pursue Him more. Our awareness of a greater need for Jesus is partly how the Holy Spirit draws us nearer to our Lord.

What we should be most concerned about is a lack of desire to know Jesus more.

But here and now, the simple fact we must face is that if we are living in this flesh and blood reality we will never be fully satisfied. We also need to be careful not to diagnose this overwhelming dissatisfaction as a failure of our church family, or even our own lack of spiritual perfection. What’s missing is the full and complete presence of Jesus in our life. That’s what we’re longing for, and that is what we must pursue, but we have to do so without condemning ourselves, or others in the Body of Christ.

One day we will see Him face to face and then we will be satisfied in His presence. But here and now we are simply called to hunger for more hunger and to thirst for greater thirst. This holy desire draws us nearer to Jesus, but it will not ever be fully satisfied until we are physically in His arms.

“You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains; carried the cross of my shame. You know I believe it. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” – Bono, U2

Stay hungry.

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MORE JESUS?

A few weeks ago I was reflecting on my need for inspiration in my life. I thought

about my half-hearted attitude and lack of passion and I concluded that what I was

missing was someone like Jackie Pullinger or Heidi Baker or Shane Claiborne to

jump start my zeal to serve God.

Almost immediately, I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me and I heard the Lord say,

“No, you don’t. What you need is more of me.”

That made a lot more sense to me, actually. What was missing in my life lately was

simply a more immediate and vibrant connection to Jesus.

Don’t you do that sometimes? When you feel disconnected from God or far away

from the path you tend to gravitate towards a person, or a ministry, or a book, or a

church, or basically anything other than the actual source of life and peace and joy

 – Jesus.

“For He (Jesus) Himself is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14)

Plain and simple: What I need is more of Jesus. Don’t settle for anything less than the 

author of life.

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IN HOT PURSUIT

Lately I’ve been contemplating the idea that there is more of Jesus to know than I know. Of course, this isn’t much of a huge revelation as far as things go. But the concept has gripped me over the last few days and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.

I’ve been following Jesus for over 30 years now. I’ve been a licensed and ordained pastor for over 20 years. Yet the longer I know Jesus the more I realize that I have barely scratched the surface. What I know of Jesus is significant, but much of it is based on my past experience or my knowledge of the scriptures.

What set my imagination spinning was a brief testimonial where various people shared their breath taking experiences discovering how high and wide and deep and long the person of Jesus really was. As I listened to them speak I sensed something in my spirit begin to leap. I knew that it was possible for me to lose myself in the endless deep of Jesus like these people had. I understood that I had slowed down in my pursuit of Jesus. I had settled for less.

Even the idea of following Jesus implies chasing after him. Lately I’ve allowed my walk with Jesus to become more like lounging around. Rather than slowly following Jesus as if He weren’t headed anywhere particular or doing anything all that important, I began to think of following Jesus as a pursuit. Suddenly I could see that Jesus was active and moving and “always at work” [John 5:17]. It made keeping up with Jesus an active verb. Following Jesus is more like keeping up with Him and less like meandering aimlessly.

There is more of Jesus for me to know than I know. He is more marvelous, more exciting, more glorious than I can even imagine. I realize that lately the Jesus I’ve been following has been pretty predictable and sluggish. Maybe it’s not Jesus I’m following after all? Or maybe I’m still walking at the pace Jesus was keeping in my life five years ago? It’s as if I’m looking up and He’s farther ahead of me than I thought He was. It’s time for me to pick up the tempo and chase after Jesus again with all of my heart.

Of course, I understand that for me to fully receive more of Jesus I will need to allow Him to make room within my heart. It means that there is a cost. To have more of Him I will need less of me. This is why Jesus says that no one who wants to chase after Him can accomplish this without a daily death of self. [Luke 9:23]

Even as I contemplate the idea that there is more of Jesus to know than I know, my flesh whispers doubt in my ear. “Can there really be more of Jesus to know than you know already?” I hear the serpent hiss. “You’ve gone as far as you can go with Jesus. This is all there is.”

But I know this voice. I recognize the emptiness. It’s the flesh in me speaking out against the Spirit. “There must be more. I know there is more.”

All that I’ve experienced before? That’s not what Jesus is wanting to show me. All that I’ve heard and seen? There’s even more to know of Jesus than this. All the wisdom and truth and revelation God has given me in the past? It’s only the barest preamble of what Jesus has in store.

The revivals, the healings, the miracles, the prophetic words, the testimonies, the sweet intimate moments alone with him, all of it is less than what still waits ahead of me. Jesus has only begun to reveal His Glorious Self to me.

After all this time, there's more of Him to know. After all these years, there's more of Jesus to love. There's more of His splendor to see. There are more oceans of His love still left for me to sail.

My heart beats faster the more I consider this truth. Jesus is standing at the door and waiting to show me more of Himself. I dare not keep Him waiting.

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