What Do You Hope

In Psalm 37:4 we read: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

What are these desires? Is it a mansion of a house, a sports car, and loads of money? Is it fame or power? I believe the Lord has shown me that the desires mentioned in this passage are His desires for your life and for His Kingdom. In other words, if the Lord is your delight, if He is your main source of pleasure and fulfilment and is the one you live for, He will put His desires in you. You will then desire what He wants you to desire.

This has a number of advantages, which is not the aim of this message today, but I will mention one. If you delight yourself in the Lord and seek His will for your life, you simply need to look at what you desire, for that desire would be the Lord’s desire that He put in you. By doing what you desire you are doing His will. Obviously the desire should be in line with the Word of God.

This desire you have creates hope in you. This is not the kind of hope in the context we often use the word hope; “I hope this and that will happen”, in other words a sort of despondent attitude. No the word hope in Biblical context denotes a glad expectation that you will get the desire you have if you ask it from the Lord. This is why Hebrews 11:1 declares:” Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction) of things not seen.”

The Lord has put the desire in your heart. You have an exciting expectation that it will be fulfilled, but it has not happened yet. So what now? You display an assurance that your expectation will be fulfilled and you act under a conviction that it will come about, even though you cannot yet see it manifest. This is faith that pleases the Lord (Hebrews 11:6). Then you take whatever steps needed for this hope to manifest, for James 2:17 tells us that faith without works is dead.

For example; 22 years ago a certain pastor had a desire to begin a radio station to reach the thousands of souls in his city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. After the station had been going for a while, he got the desire to have a building to house the station in. He put this hope to action and started to look for a property. When he found what he wanted and heard the price, he realised he did not have the money... but he had the glad expectation – the hope. The seller told him he would be happy if the pastor could give him a third of the money as a deposit. Even though the pastor knew he did not have the money, he agreed that he would bring it the next day – putting action to his faith. He then went to his treasurer asking him to write him a cheque for the said amount of the deposit.

Next, he went to his bank in the hope the bank would settle for an arrangement, but on the way there he had the desire to first get their mail from the post office, since he was in the area. Guess what; in the mail was a cheque for the exact amount he needed. He still went to the bank, but this time not as a beggar, but as a conqueror to deposit the cheque. Twenty-two years later this radio station is still reaching millions with the Gospel.

Can you see how he responded to his desires, even the simple desire to get the mail? He had no proof that the money would be available, but he had a cheque written based on his assurance that God will somehow honour his faith.

This is what pleases the Lord as per Hebrews 11:6. If you act on the desire He put in you, even though you have no physical assurance, it will happen.

Is the Lord your main or only delight? What is it you desire? What is it you hope?

If we live only according to the sinful nature, our desires would be determined by the sinful nature – greed, lust, and pleasures that please the sinful nature. If we live a little by the sinful nature and a little by the Holy Spirit, we will have a little of both kinds of desires. This is why we are often confused, for we have to distinguish between our desires and the Lord’s desires,

But if we are holy (set aside) and focused on the Lord alone, His desires will determine our faith and actions.

So what do you hope? If it is anything that can further the Lord’s Kingdom and interests, then start acting to your convictions by faith. This can be something to meet your personal needs as well, for after all if you are wanting you cannot be effective in the Kingdom of God.

Lord, please teach me to live by faith.