Psalm 37:4 –Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. (HCSB)

Psalm 27:14 – Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (ESV)

My husband and I were attending some meetings that required us to stay in a hotel.  It had been a long few days with travel, activities, and gatherings and I was exhausted.  In the wee hours of the final morning I received two text messages, both were bad news from friends, both involved sick family members who had been admitted to the hospital, one a parent, one a child.  I answered the texts, then spent some time in prayer.  I was able to fall back to sleep but it wasn’t a restful sleep so I was seriously dragging myself out of bed when the alarm sounded to begin another day.  As I was standing in the shower, I was desperately hoping that my husband had gone for coffee.  As I washed my hair, I thought of that wonderful nectar that would shore me up to face the day.  As I washed my body, I could envision me savoring those luscious sips as I dressed. But, since I had not shared with my husband my intense desire for that magic potent, sadly there was no coffee waiting when I exited the bathroom. I cannot begin to describe my disappointment!  A.A. Milne said, “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” Since the coffee had not come to me, I concluded that I needed to go to it and set off on my quest.  As I waited for a very slow elevator, I started to think of how much my morning had been like my life.  I set my heart on a desire. I desperately hope that my desire will be fulfilled.  I am fully convinced that the attainment of my desire will make my days wonderful. I envision myself enjoying the fulfillment of my desire.  But, I do not share my desire with God.  I neither ask for His assistance nor seek His guidance. Just as with the coffee, sometimes when my desires do not come to me, I go after them, and get very impatient when the journey is slower than I would like.  Psalm 27:4 promises that God will give me the desires of my heart if I take delight in Him. Delight in Him means that I take joy in God’s goodness, that I strive to please Him in all that I do, that I trust Him and wait for His plans to unfold. Desires take time, but God delights in giving us our desires if we desire the right things. Psalm 145:15 says “All eyes look to You, and You give them their food in due time.”  I think the words “in due time” are the key words in that scripture. James 4:1-3 talks about how we are so desperate to have our own way that we will go to any lengths to fulfill our own desires, but we don’t go to God because we know that our desires are selfish. Craig Bruce said that we usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for. My plans for immediate fulfillment seem so good to me, but God’s plans are so much better (Jeremiah 29:11). Lord, please help me to always remember that You are worth waiting for!