God will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 gets quoted a lot. Usually it's when we're praying for something we really, really want and we're hoping God will answer yes, so we turn to this verse...

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

So we pray for things like husbands, babies, new cars, people to be healed from illness, bigger homes, better jobs, the list goes on and on... but what if God has something MORE for us than this laundry list of "desires of our hearts."

Lately I've been giving my heart to God daily. Making time to sit down and read my Bible, and not just skim it quickly to mark a couple verses off a devo list, but actually READING it. Holding my physical Bible in my hand, not an app on a phone but the real pages to turn, places to take a pen and highlight, sitting with a notebook and copying scripture then reading it in my own hand writing. Try it, it's powerful.

What I'm learning lately is that while having a family, a nice house, children etc etc...

aren't really "bad" at all they're so SMALL compared to the big dreams God has for us. And when we DELIGHT in God, when we take the time to sit at his feet daily with a blank notebook page and pen and an open heart HE begins to GIVE US desires that we never even dreamed of.

The desires of our hearts are not material things but rather finding the purpose God created us for. For example I'm not a very social person and hate being the center of attention and public speaking, but through regularly delighting myself in God he revealed to me the desire to create a face book mom group and encourage other women.

When I was single and waiting for a spouse and was delighting in the Lord he put the desire in me to go and serve in Chicago for a summer with Inner City Impact. That's definitely something SO far out of my comfort zone, first to go live on my own, but especially in a large busy city which I hate. I was terrified, but I knew God had placed that desire there and I am so thankful He did.

So the next time you read this verse, look at it in a new light. God I don't want to just pray for my own desires, but God GIVE ME desires in my heart that will glorify you in the long run.