The changing desires of the heart

The side notes I've scribbled in my Bibles have a sort of journal quality that tell me what was going on in my life at the time.

For instance, I've written a date (7/20/97) with no explanation next to Psalm 20:4 "May he grant you according to your heart's desire, and fulfill all your purpose." I also have an arrow across the page pointing to Psalm 21:2 "You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips."

These are wonderful verses. I can only guess that the date is for the closing of a house I no longer live in. At the time, it was naturally the biggest event going on in my life.

I was a single mom of three daughters, and we needed a place to live. We did not know until the last minute of closing whether the deal on the other house would go through to allow us to move into the house we wanted, so we truly were praying for a miracle. And our gracious God did grant us the desires of our hearts for that time.

Only as I look back almost exactly twelve years later, does perspective allow me to see how many other pressing desires--prayer needs related to what was going on in my life or the lives of my loved ones--there have been in the meantime.

• Praying through pregnancies and deliveries (with complications and miscarriages) of my daughters and stepdaughter.
• Sitting at the bedside of my seriously ill husband--a husband who was not even married to me twelve years ago.
• The disappearance of my precious stepson, who then committed suicide.
• The murders of my dear friend and my aunt.
• The brain tumor and the ways living with it affects my life.

This is a partial list. You have your own. How important are the current desires of your heart to you? Vital, of course. To God? Vital, of course. Does he grant them all? Of course not.

I'm glad not to have known what was ahead twelve years ago. How gracious God is to grant us the desires he knows are appropriate for us in his season and to his glory. We don't need to know further ahead than today--he does.

May he grant your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory, flying banners to honor our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers.
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Some nations boast of their great armies and weapons, but we boast in the Lord our God.

Psalm 20:4-8