"A Prescription for Life" (Part 4)

“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires.” (Psalm 37:4 NLV).

Out of David’s psalm we find the second principle to apply. We need to delight in the Lord. When this happens we will experience joy and peace.

Good things don’t happen quickly. Good spiritual things don’t happen quickly either. In his book The Uttermost Star, F.W. Boreham told about attending a farewell service for a minister who was leaving a church he had pastored for 20 years. Several preachers attended, and each eloquently extolled the pastor's virtues. Boreham commented that he had forgotten everything said that day except for a simple statement made by a man who was not even scheduled to speak. The man had asked permission to say a word, and in a single sentence had paid his pastor this compliment: "I have seen him nearly every day of my life for 20 years, and I've never seen him in a hurry!" After the service, the minister said he considered that tribute to be the most gratifying. He took it as an indication that over the years he had truly learned to wait patiently upon the Lord.

We will never learn to delight ourselves in the Lord until we get into His presence through
prayer and meditation in the Scripture! David’s promise in this psalm is not a blanket promise from God to get whatever we want. When we learn to delight in the Lord or get delighted and excited with the Lord, His wants will be our wants! His desires will be our desires! This verse of Scripture does not give us a blank check for anything and everything we want just because we come to Him! But if we truly learn to delight in the Lord and get excited about our relationship to Him, He will bless our lives with greater peace and joy, and less stress, worry and fear!

When I was a very young boy my dad and I would go fishing together. He always caught more fish than I did. When I would ask “why?” he would reply that I “wasn’t holding my mouth right.” I suppose that was his way of just telling me to keep trying. I know that I began to watch him more and more closely, trying to “hold my mouth” just like his. I would wear my cap like he did, walk like he did, cast like he did. Everything he did, I tried to emulate it so that I could catch as many fish as he did. And you know what? It started to work. I started to catch more fish than I ever had before. He still caught more, but that only made me want to be like him more!

I loved being with my dad when we went fishing. I delighted in his presence beside me. We talked about so many things that have meant so much to me through the years. Little bits of wisdom that he imparted to me have made a difference in my life to this day. Our relationship with our heavenly Father ought to be like that also. Taking delight in the Lord means that we take the time to be with Him so that we can observe Him. By reading the Scripture and praying we learn to “hold our mouth right”! Remember this is not an “exercise.” It ought not to be another item on a list that is already so full that you can never get to it all. It issues out of a genuine desire to be with Him. Delight in the Lord and you’ll learn to “hold your mouth right!”