The Genie

Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had lamps with a wish-granting genie inside? Even better, a genie who granted an unlimited number of wishes.

“You want Andy’s? No problem!” (Andy’s)

“Your dream job? You start Monday!”

“A girlfriend or boyfriend? Take your pick!”

“A new car? Here are the keys!”

“An endless supply of inflation-resistant money? Here is your direct line to the treasury—call anytime, day or night!”

A genie would come in handy, because, let’s face it, we all have things we want! If you have ever wanted your own personal genie, you’re in luck! Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Your heart’s desires, and all you have to do is delight yourself in the Lord! Sounds easy enough, right? Maybe if we’re really serious about getting our heart’s desires, we could even sing the chorus of “Overwhelmed” by Big Daddy Weave. It couldn’t hurt!

 “I delight myself in You
Captivated by Your beauty
I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed by You”

But is getting what we want really the point of this verse? I don’t think so. Okay, I’ll be honest, I may have thought so at one point in my life. I may have thought, “I really, really want _______. That’s the desire of my heart, so I am going to delight myself in the Lord so that He’ll give it to me.”   

Because there are things we want, things we don’t have, things that seem out of reach, I think we tend to focus on the second half of this verse. It’s tempting to view delighting ourselves in the Lord as a means to an end. But in doing so, do we reduce our image of the God we’re supposed to be delighting in to a wish-granting genie?

Yes, God is aware of our needs (Matthew 6:8). Yes, He knows how to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:11). But do we seek the gift or the giver? Do we delight ourselves in the idea of being given the desires of our hearts or in the God who gives?

Nothing we desire could ever compare to our awesome, loving, gracious, holy, omniscient, omnipotent God. He is more than we can wrap our minds around, He loves us more than we can comprehend, and He has already given us more than we could ever deserve.  When we stop to think about who He is, how can we do anything but delight in Him?