The "Requests" Of Your Heart

Psalm 37:4-6

4 Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;

trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

your vindication like the noonday sun.

The above passage is the first passage of scripture in the Bible that I ever memorized. A trusted friend of mine shared it with me to encourage me about a particular situation in my life. That’s a long story for another blog entry, but let’s just say I’ve learned that there’s a reason why “desires of your heart” comes after “take delight in the Lord”.

One thing I love about the Bible is that, you can read a passage numerous times and still never cease to get something new out of it. It reminds me of listening to a song or watching a movie for the ‘hundred-teenth time and catching something I didn’t catch before, or making a new connection to something that I had experienced in my life since the last time. The Bible just has this strange ability to continue to be relevant as we continue to live our lives.

Earlier this year, one of the older gentlemen in my Church shared this scripture with us as he was doing the welcome one Sunday morning. The majority of us had heard or read it many times before, but he pointed out something that added a bit more depth to it for me than before. He brought our attention to the word “desires” at the end of verse 4. He explained that the original Hebrew word is “Mish’alah”. While “desire” is definitely one of the definitions of the word, it is only the third definition, coming after “request” and “petition.” When you replace “desires” in verse 4 with “requests” or “petitions”, this verse gets a little heavier. To make a request or petition involves making a desire known.

We all have desires, but our desires are not always spoken about or acted upon. Sometimes we feel like our desires are unrealistic or that we otherwise just won’t get what we ask for. Maybe we feel like the favor we’d ask for will be too much of a burden. Or maybe we don’t have faith that the person we ask can fulfill the request. For whatever reason, we don’t always speak up about what we want.

However, it is not just enough for us to have desires. Got wants us to ask for what we want. I can already hear some of you thinking, “But God is omnipotent and all-knowing. He already knows what I want. Why do I need to ask him for it?” While this may be true, that is not the point. Of course, we could obviously look to the old adage and know that “a closed mouth don’t get fed.” More importantly, God wants a genuine relationship with us. In a healthy relationship, the lines of communication are always open. Consider for a moment an Earthly relationship. The argument can be made (usually by women) that your significant other should know you so well that you don’t have to ask for what you want, but at the end of the day, assuming that your partner already knows what you want can potentially lead to confusion and hurt feelings. A failure to communicate your needs and desires to your S.O. can also come across as taking him or her for granted.

While we certainly don’t have to worry about God getting any signals crossed or incorrectly assuming our wants and needs, the point still remains that he wants to hear from us. Yes, he knows already, but he wants to hear it out of our own mouths. It is when we have personal, real dialogue with God –complete with wants, needs, desires, adorations, disappointments, even beefs with him– that we truly have a close relationship with him.

Getting back to the main point of Psalm 37:3-6, when we have delighted ourselves in him, God will grant us the requests of our hearts. He will reward us with the desires that we have laid before him with requests and petitions, not the desires that we have kept to ourselves. Learning this has made me realize that I just have not been communicating with God like I should. I thought about the parable of the persistent widow, where Jesus made the point that God brings about justice for his chosen ones when they cry out to him day and night. I also thought about several scriptures in the gospels that speak of “asking and receiving.” A common theme began to marinate in my head about consistent and persistent communication with God. I realized that maybe I haven’t been getting what I want from God because I just haven’t been talking to him and making requests of him enough. I’ve had to come to the conviction that, while I may not get everything that I want, I’d rather ask for what I want and not get it, than to not get what I want simply because I didn't ask for it. Regardless of if our prayers are selfless or selfish (he’ll guide our hearts to the right place), God wants to hear our desires, and more importantly, he just wants to hear from us!