What Do You Hold Dear - What Have You Built Your Life Upon

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.— Psalm 37:4

I don’t believe that verse means that if your pray – if your good – then God will give you what you want.  Instead, I believe that God is saying that if you love God with all your heart, mind, and strength, He will change your wants.  God will make His ways-your ways, His desires-your desires, His purposes-your purposes.  He will conform you into the image of His Son.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  – Romans 8:29

That shaping process requires surrender .. of everything … not just some things.  One of my favorite Maranatha praise songs “Knowing You” says; 

“All I once held dear, built my life upon, All this world reveres and wars to own, 

All I once thought gain I have counted loss, Spent and worthless now compared to this, 

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You, There is no greater thing 

Now my heart's desire is to know You more, To be found in You and known as Yours, 

To possess by faith what I could not earn, All surpassing gift of righteousness, 

Oh to know the power of Your risen life, And to know You in Your sufferings, 

To become like You in Your death, my Lord, So with You to live and never die, 

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You, There is no greater thing.” Knowing You Jesus, Graham Kendrick

Is there something in your life that you still cling to, still trust in - something you treat like a greater thing than your devotion to God?  Perhaps you want to preserve your life style.  Perhaps you want to keep your circle of friends which causes you to compromise your faith for them.  Maybe something else, but it is something.  We all struggle with it.

Listen, the ways of the world will remain embedded in your heart if you don’t surrender all of your heart to God by faith.  It’s time to be honest with yourself.  God already knows the truth.  He examines the heart.  You can’t hide anything from Him.  You may fool the people at church when you put on your happy – I love Jesus yes I do – face on Sunday.  But even then, your heart is hardened toward God, resisting what He wants to do in your life, because you love your old life and don’t want to give it up.  Am I being more blunt that you would prefer?  My job is to speak – or write – the Truth in love.  My purpose is not to condemn you, but to encourage you to choose God.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:13-14