Psalm 37

I used to make labels to put on all of our DVDs that had our name on them and phone number and "Psalm 37:21a" on them. That was pretty funny to me at the time. And it still is pretty funny thinking of people who actually looked it up.

But this chapter has all kinds of wonderful gems in it. So many good scriptures you just want to print on cards and memorize or save to your desktop as a screen saver. Or if you're like me, write it on the giant whiteboard wall in your office (my favorite underutilized luxury).

But when I started reading through it today, I just saw lots and lots of hard things. Don't fret. Don't envy. Do good. Cultivate faithfulness. Commit. Trust. Rest. Wait. None of those things come easily for me. But in the middle of those do's and don'ts is a delightful little command that I memorized long long ago.

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

That verse was a mystery to me. Even as a kid I wondered about things like sovereignty and predestination and other matters that made it impossible to think that God was saying I could have things that I dearly wanted. Me. One in a billion. Not all of us can have the desires of our heart right? Surely that's not statistically possible, even to a God who can do anything. Just the mind-boggling logistics of it all make Santa's Christmas Eve trip seem like crossing the street.

I guess what I couldn't factor in was the caveat at the beginning of the verse. Delighting yourself in the Lord comes first. I would say in the past couple of seasons, I have seen this play out though. I can testify that this verse is true. That it, like all others of God's promises in His word are reliable and trustworthy. I am more delighted in Him than I have ever been in my life. And I keep waking up day after day finding that He has indeed given em the desires of my heart.

Now, I'm not going to lie, that doesn't mean that my life is like the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they open the tiny door and step into the fabulous fantasy edible world of chocolate waterfalls. I'm actually still very busy and stretched and challenged and even overwhelmed.

But His grace is sufficient. His love is never ending. And He is everything this chapter says He is.