The Desires of My Heart vs. The Heart of My Desires

On the last night of my Colombia missions trip, I lead a team devotional on the Heart of Our Desires.  I began with a piece of handmade paper for everyone and wrote the following verse on the top of it.

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

I then asked the team members to write out what the desires of their hearts were on that paper, put it in the envelope provided, seal it, sign it  and date it - June 27th, 2011.  As a team we decided that Christmas Day would be a good day for us to open the letters. Today is Christmas Day.

I heard a speaker a couple of years ago who spoke on the heart of our desires.  God tells us that He will give us the desires of our heart, but we don't always get what we want. Why not?  God sees the big picture and He knows what we truly want and not just what we want at the moment.  It is kind of like that big huge piece of chocolate cake sitting in front of me calling my name.  Although that cake looks amazing, that dress in the store window that I need to lose 20 lbs to fit into will look so much more amazing than that chocolate cake will taste. 

So tonight I opened my envelope to see what it was I thought the desires of my heart were almost 6 months ago.  It is funny because a couple of the things on the list wouldn't be there if I wrote it today and if I were to re-write it, there would be other things that would be on it, but aren't there now.  Some things I am in the process of accomplishing and other things are on the list and remain on the list, but for now God says, "Not yet, my child."  So I continue to wait, but actively waiting, continuing to go forward becoming who I was created to be.

I put my letter back into the envelope and back into its special spot.  I have decided I want to look at it in another 6 months on the first anniversary of the day I wrote it.  It was a good lesson for me.  I love it.  I continue to trust that God has my best interests at heart and He just wants me to grow more into the woman He created me to be, a woman of love, of life and of passion.  I am getting there one day at a time.

It was a great Christmas gift.