More, More Like Him

I received an email the other day with a list of children’s letters to God. One that especially caught my eye was this one that reads, “Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy!” It is a simple and very honest prayer.

It is obvious that this little girl’s biggest desire was for a puppy. If you’ve had one you know puppies are cute, fun to play with, make great companions and seem to be at the top of every child’s wish list. I imagine that she must have felt a little betrayed when God answered her prayer differently than she had anticipated. After all, baby brothers are okay, but for too many children that pails in comparison to a puppy.

In Psalm 37:4 David says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Here in this psalm there is a promise — an if/then statement, you could say. It could as easily read, “If you delight yourself in the Lord, then he will give you the desires of your heart.” If that is the case, how does one explain the little girl’s baby brother? To many people God is just the Big Santa in the sky with whom they hope to strike up a deal. The deal goes something like this; “If I go to church, catch up on my praying, say and do the right things, then God will you give me a new job, a new wife, a glossy red Corvette or something else really cool.”

At that thought, let me caution you not to look at verses of Scripture as merely recipes for your own happiness. A more carful reading of this passage indicates that when a person takes delight in the Lord, then the desires of their hearts become more in line with the desires of God’s heart—this is a key component to spiritual growth. Does that mean you can never ask for a new job, a new car or other things of personal pleasure? Of course not! It does, however, shine a light on God’s deeper desire for us: to become more like Him. A worship hymn expresses the implications of the text this way, “More about Jesus, in His Word, holding communion with my Lord; hearing His voice in every line, making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus, more, more about Jesus; more of His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me.” As the New Year fast approaches resolve to desire more, more about Jesus.

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