Please pray for me that I will have a lasting reconcilation with God. For years I have wanted to be close to Him but always felt abandoned. I pray for His forgiveness and that He will help me to better my life and gain a deeper and closer understanding relationship with Him.

There are a lot of things that I am still very confused about but I hope in patience and prayer that all these things will come to light.

For years I have always been advised Psalm 37:4-5
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." This has always been an interesting Bible verse to me but really--what does it mean?
If God already has a will for me then what does it matter what the desires of my heart are? Can someone clearly explain what this means? Thank you.

What do you love doing?
Does it line up with THE WORD (not sinful/doing good)?

This is your personal relationship with JESUS CHRIST.
Do these things, as you love CHRIST, with all of your heart, mind & soul.

Many people like to exclude, "delight in THE LORD," when seeking the desires of the heart. The two are clearly connected!
Thanks for quoting the scripture..

I pray you continue to find peace in CHRIST.

iwant2know Wrote:Please pray for me that I will have a lasting reconcilation with God. For years I have wanted to be close to Him but always felt abandoned. I pray for His forgiveness and that He will help me to better my life and gain a deeper and closer understanding relationship with Him.

There are a lot of things that I am still very confused about but I hope in patience and prayer that all these things will come to light.

For years I have always been advised Psalm 37:4-5
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." This has always been an interesting Bible verse to me but really--what does it mean?
If God already has a will for me then what does it matter what the desires of my heart are? Can someone clearly explain what this means? Thank you.

God does have a will for you...and for all of us but he also seeks to give us the things that he knows will truly make us content. An extrapolation of the meaning of the Text is as follows:
"Trust in the Lord"...in this the word is teaching us that we should place our belief in Him and and in his ability to lead, guide and help us. We in this generation and many before us find the Lord in the Holy Bible...for it is through the word that we learn who He is, what He does and how to relate to Him...because unlike the disciples...we will not walk with Him and learn from Him in his human form. Thus, we must read His word and believe in it and therefore believe that He can and will do everything the word says He can!

"And do good"...we are to do the will of God in our lives daily...pray, read his word, help our fellowman when we can do so...no matter what goes on around us we are to do as the Lord instructs us in His word...not pay back evil with evil for example.

"Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture"...God gave the Jewish people a land where he wanted them to live...and he wanted them to live purely within it...not intermingling with those that did not worship Him. Today symbolically it remains the same...where ever we are we are to surround ourselves with those of like beliefs that our safety will be increased by us not intermingling with those who live by the rules of the world rather than the rules of our God.

"Delight yourself in the Lord"...the word
DELIGHT is key...it can be both a noun and a verb. The meaning... that we take great pleasure in something. In this case we find our most pleasing moments in life spent with the Lord of Hosts...we read His word and live by it...not out of duty but because we love it and Him and want to be pleasing to Him in everything that we do. When our hearts are truly with God...we find happiness and peace and joy in all situations...because we are not relying on things that ultimately are fallible that can wither and die...relationships or worldly goods to make us happy. Our happiness is in knowing that He is pleased with us and therefore relationships and worldly goods, while they are nice to have are not our reason for living...and whether we have them or not...we can still be happy within our lives.

"and he will give you the desires of your heart." This is a very important and often misunderstood verse. God will lead us to those things that truly make us content if we allow him to...but first we need to be really clear on what those things are...for example...if we really and truly believe that the only way we can find contentment is to have a lot of money...we are missing the point. God is telling us...that only He can bring us that joy...and when we truly believe Him and place less emphasis on those types of things and more on our love and relationship with Him...He knows it. He can then trust US with major things like larger incomes...husbands and wives...children to rear...but He wants to be the love of our lives...with everything and everyone else coming far after Him in importance. He does not want us to worship these things. The word also says that "where the heart is there is our treasure also." God wants to be our treasure...the most precious thing to us...and when He is...He will grant us many of our other desires. But first...we must delight...love...honor...and obey Him. Many people never receive the things that they would like to have in their lives because the miss the Delight in the Lord part and think they should be rewarded because they pray...or they help others...that is not what he means...and He measures our true love for Him...from the previously stated perspective.

I hope this has helped you to understand this scriptural reference...it is an excellent scripture to ponder...May God bless your richly...In Jesus name...Amen!

What I feel that it means, it to continue doing good in him, and he will give you what you desire, which if you are doing good in him then your desire will be him. Kinda like in 1Kings chapter 3 vs. 4-14. Basically God was please with king solomon for doing his will so god tells him, "ask for what ever you want, and I will give it to you", all solomon asked for was wisdom to tell right wrong so he could serve god better and help others to as well.

Hope this helps!
"Just because we say Amen, that doesnt mean the prayer ends there."

~Daniel R. Rodriguez