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

I have heard two understandings of the verse above. One sounds potentially like “God’s a genie in a bottle ready to give me my wishes”, while the other has a risk of sounding like God is in the business of controlling His children. I believe both understandings of this are accurate but have to be avoided in the extreme.

The first understanding of this which I’ve heard is that if we focus on God, seek the things which are on His heart, then He will shape our minds and hearts to desire things which are consistent with that. So He literally gives us our desires versus the things we desire. This understanding rings true for me in my experience, but in my opinion it is only one side.

The other understanding is that God cares about the things that we desire and He will give us those things. It’s easy to take this to an extreme and give Christians a bad reputation by talking like whatever our selfish hearts want, God is going to give it to us. I don’t believe that’s a fair representation of God however.

I believe the truth lies in a balance of these two ideas. God does know the things which are special to us and wants to bless us even as we would do for our own children. He also adjusts our desires from time to time to line up with His, especially in areas where we may not fully comprehend His will.

Whether you’re patiently waiting for Him to fulfill your desires OR questioning if He might be planning to adjust them instead, it’s safe to trust God with the honest feelings of your heart. He knows them anyway, so be honest with Him; you might be surprised how he responds.