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Monday, December 7, 2015

Delight Yourself in the Lord...

By Patricia Bradley


When I sign my books, I write  Psalm 37: 4. This is a verse with a  condition and a promise

If you (the condition): "Delight yourself in the Lord and (the Promise) He will give you the desires of your heart."

Exactly how do we go about delighting ourselves in Him? By working harder? Or Doing more things? 

I don't think so. I believe delighting ourselves in Him means we recognize who He is. He is our Creator, the Giver of our lives, the Giver of our desires. 

When we delight ourselves in Him we want what He desires for us. 

For years, I claimed this verse  as God's promise that I would be published.  

So you can imagine that I didn't understand when year after year passed and I was not published. After all, I was delighting myself in Him...wasn't I?

One morning in my quiet time, after yet another agent turned me down I prayed, "Lord if writing is not what you have for me..." I took a breath, not sure I wanted to finish my prayer because writing meant so much to me... "then change my desires. Put your desires in my heart."

I prayed that prayer, meaning it. 

As the days passed and became months, my desire to write did not lessen. Then one day as I was reading Psalm 37, I read verse four, then five and six , then seven: "Wait patiently for God to act..."

Now, I'd read verse seven many times before, but that day it hit me. Since God didn't change my desire, then I was doing what He wanted me to do, but it would be in His timing, not mine. 

That's the day I stopped striving to get published and started enjoying the journey. Writing was my job, getting published wasn't. That was God's job, and He did such a better job of it than I ever could have.

So this Christmas season, delight yourself in Him and ask Him to put His desires in you!

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9 comments:

  1. I loved this post, Patricia. You're so right about trusting His timing.
    I've always written for myself,knowing that God put the stories into my heart. When I entered a contest on a whim, and was offered a contract,that I didn't feel ready for, I remember sitting at my desk at work and telling God, if You think I'm ready, then I trust You.

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    1. I love that, Jill! My problem was just the opposite. lol. I am so glad I didn't get published when I was trying so hard. I would be so embarrassed now!

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  2. Preach it, Sistah! Great post, Pat. It's so hard to be patient and to trust God with our desires--the very desire He put there.

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    1. I think it's only after we yield our desires to Him that we get patience. I never ever ask for patience...'cause you know how you get it, don't you?

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  3. Great post. I am always telling my son that he needs to be patient and wait on God's timing....he doesn't always listen and then wonders why some things don't work out. *smacking my forehead* Have a blessed week.

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    1. Debbie, if he's under 25, at least he has an excuse--the part of the brain that "gets it" hasn't fully developed. And I'm afraid it doesn't ever develop in some people's brains. lol

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    2. He's 26.....still holding out hope that he gets it. :-)

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