Verse: Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Devotional Thoughts:
I love to play disc golf. Notice I did not say I was good at it (in fact, I’m flat terrible), but I find it challenging and just a lot of fun to play. When I lived in Birmingham, there were several nice disc golf courses in the area, so a couple of friends and I would often spend a Saturday afternoon competing for the best score.
One afternoon, we were playing a new course and came upon a particularly difficult throw. When you stepped up to drive, you had to throw around a big oak tree that was just 30 feet directly in front of the tee pad. So naturally my very first throw nailed the big oak tree and then rolled all the way back to me. But my friend stepped up and made a beautiful drive, right around the oak tree, and set himself up well for his next throw. Frustrated, I asked him, “How do you do that? I aimed as well as I could to not hit that tree, and I still hit it. How do you keep from hitting it?”
I’ll never forget his reply. He said, “You want to know the secret to missing the tree? Here it is: I was aiming for it. As long as I was aiming to hit the tree, I knew that I never would.”
This verse says that God is willing to give us the desires of our heart. I recently read an article from the Huffington Post in which the writer asked a group of people what they want more of in life. Unsurprisingly, the top answer was happiness. We all want to be happy right? In discussing why people aren’t happier, the author talks about how people are constantly looking outside themselves for happiness.
I want to give you the secret of why so many people miss out on happiness. Here it is: They’re aiming for it. As long as you are aiming for happiness, you’ll never hit it. You’ll never find it.
As long as you’re aiming for happiness, you’ll always feel like you’re missing out on something. You’ll always feel like there has to be more. That’s because you are. And that’s because there is.
Points to Ponder:
True happiness will not be found by seeking it. And when people bring up true happiness, what they really mean is joy. They say they want to be happy – they mean they want the joy of a full, satisfied life. But that will never be found as long as it is being sought.
When you are aiming at happiness, you’re essentially putting the cart before the horse. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. What our hearts truly yearn for is the Lord. God made us that way. It’s the way we’re wired. So if we delight ourselves in Him, we’re going to be filled with true happiness. By delighting ourselves in Him, we’ll get to experience the joy of a satisfied life.
So make Him your aim this week. As long as He is your aim, you’ll begin hitting true happiness as well.
Blessings,
Zac
