Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

A Little Sermon Follow Up

My friend, Jason, came up to me Sunday with his Bible open. He showed me a Scripture that would have fit perfectly with my message…but I didn't think of it during my message prep. And it's weird, because it's a Scripture I know by heart. So I thought I'd do a little sermon follow up blog-style.

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

This verse has been twisted and turned by so many who preach the "health and wealth gospel." They only focus on the second half of the verse: God will give you the desires of your heart. And they have used that to tell people that, "God wants you to drive a Maserati. He wants you to live in a mansion and eat filet mignon for breakfast." (These comments are often followed by, "And he'll give you all of that if you send $1,000 to my ministry right now!")

If you're going to understand the truth of this verse, you have to read the whole verse! The key is the first part of the verse: Delight yourself in the Lord.

As I said on Sunday, the question is not, "Is God on my side?" The question is, "Am I on God's side?" Like we talked about last weekend, Joshua had to get that one straightened out before the battle of Jericho. And we have to be sure we are on that same page in our lives.

God does want to give you the desires of your heart. But the key is delighting yourself in Him first. It's all about surrendering your will to His will, as we talked about on Sunday.

God will give you the desires of your heart when the desires of your heart mirror the desires of His heart.