Before we can experience the God-given dreams He wants to give each of us, first His delight must become our delight. Notice what Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (NKJV).
To delight is to be soft or pliable in the Lord. It is to put His interests and priorities above our own. When we find our own plans or pursuits are different from the plans and pursuits of God, we choose to be soft toward Him and easily changed.
We become hardened toward Him when our ways contradict His ways. Our softness toward Him strengthens us to be hard on ourselves. This does not mean we should beat up on ourselves or condemn ourselves, but rather that we should be strong to respond to situations according to the Word of God.
We will begin to delight in doing His will. Overcoming our flesh or unbelief, and responding in obedience and faith instead will become a delight to us.
We have been designed by God to live by the strength of our inner man. When our hearts lead our lives, we will find ourselves peaceful and successful. It is when our flesh leads us or our fear controls us that things become unbearable.
Becoming soft toward God, sensitive to His leading, and responsive to His direction is what it means to abide in Him. In John 15:7 Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (NKJV).
To delight is to make the Lord’s priorities our priorities. This becomes the key to successful prayer and effectiveness in life. We can be swayed by His gentle nudge, influenced by the least little Word from the Spirit of God. It becomes our delight to go when He says go, give when He says to give or stand still when He says stand. We have become soft and pliable in His hand.
Second, before we can experience the God-given dreams He wants to give each of us, we must make God’s dream our dream. A God-given dream is bigger than we are. It is the hope of something beyond natural reason. We cannot make our dreams come true without God’s help.
The desires of our heart are God’s dreams for us in seed form. And His Word is His plan in seed form. When His Word is our inner desire, it will guide us directly into the center of His dream.
When we are honest with ourselves, we can trust our inner desire and watch God develop a plan that will direct us into the desires of our hearts. We can begin to move toward our dreams, building plans with His help, and bringing those dreams to life.
