Last week, one of the readers of this blog sent an email with these words at the bottom of the email: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give yo the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
Reading those words reminded me of this great Psalm of David which tells us to wait on the Lord and commit our ways unto Him.
I well remember the time when those words burned in my heart. My pastor and I (I served as Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at the time) were having coffee at a restaurant. We were there for the purpose of my asking him to pray for me and for him to give me Godly counsel. He blessed me immensely that day as he reminded me of the words of the Psalm: “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Our conversation revolved around my desire to serve again as a pastor. Nothing seemed to be happening at the time. As I conveyed my thoughts, He led me to this psalm which calls for patience. Listen to the words: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this, ” “Trust in the Lord and do good,” “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him,” and “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Do you see the connection? This is not about us. It is about God. God wants His people to know Him and trust Him. He knows and understands our needs.
We are simply to abide in Him. He wants to make us fruitful and like a loving Father He delights to give us the desires of our hearts.
After leaving the meeting with Steve Dollar, I determined to place all of this in the hands of God and let Him direct my paths. I committed to seek God and His will, knowing that He would bless and encourage me along my life journey.
Not too long afterward, I became pastor of First Baptist Covington, a ministry I have enjoyed for the last 23 years.
God’s promises are true. I thank God for His faithfulness.
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2 Responses
Yours is a wonderful story. But as one author said, “a happy ending depends on where you end the story.”
January 2000 had my story ended it would have been happy, exceedingly abundantly above all I had asked and prayed. I would have accomplished the fulfillment of my promise to my father and accomplished the patience of waiting on the Lord. In the fulfillment of dependence further on the Holy Spirit I shared the success with my sibling as a witness of God’s Faithfulness who instead of joining me in Praise, did every evil thing to undo all that had been done. I turned to “godly” people who turned away from me, suggesting it was a private matter or the problem was only with me. Even you have suggested at various times that the fault lies with me in the turn of events. Thank you Lord for knowing the frustrations of Jeremiah and Job as I have an inkling now of an understanding of Jesus’ despair: If not for My sake, then for the Works sake, Believe. And yet, many turned away.
God has not abandoned His Word to me. His Grace is Sufficient. It has shown how weak and frail we have become putting our tribal and social loyalties before His Truth, His Relationship, His Design. Forgetting it is His World and Creation and His Love is availalbe to “Whom-so-ever” Believes (takes the Character of His Name).
The Micro and the Macro slices of life and relationships continue to pour out perspective for those who would have ears to hear.
As Gandhi told the British: if the actions of you “Christians” would match the teachings of Jesus I would gladly be a Christian. The paradigm is the same.
The reason is the same that more people are not flocking to Christianity in times of prosperity. It seems to take a crisis of life to get ones attention, to actually be serious. Most live as “Christians” out of tradition or tribal loyalty never realizing their potential in Christ. The only time it seems I see the teachings of Paul applied in Romans 12, especially verses 4-6, is in the securing of money for staff, buildings and projects. The purpose of being a Force of God for God in His people (John 15:5) has yet to be realized generationally (John 3:16-21). John 15:6 should wake up Christians, if they would “get it,” one might think. It is the same with every elder or near death confession/conversion: repentance is followed by sadness that there is not more time to live for Christ and for wasting so much of life before being awake to His Lordship and Purpose.
Think about it. It is quite a challenge to work as one with others, to put ones ego aside, to find ones place in the Bride of Christ. It is the challenge of a life time! It cannot be done alone. This you well know.
As I am Thankful for the Small, I pray for the Large. Join me?
Thank you for a good and encouraging word.