Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this. (Psalm 37:4-5)

Psalm 37:4 is often used by people who believe they will get what they want if they only love or delight in God enough. When they don’t get what they want, they question how much they love God, or they question God’s responsiveness and trustworthiness.

Let’s not look at Scripture through our own perspective. Let’s dig deeper and discover what God intends us to know about him through these verses. Let’s keep them in context by at least including verse 5.

First, when we delight in God the way he intends, we yield to him, which means our desires become whatever he most desires for us. What we want most is what he wants most for us. We set aside our selfishness. Of course, our love for God isn’t as pure as his love for us. Even with our best intentions and increasing spiritual maturity, there will be room for us to delight in and love him more completely. Therefore, we’ll experience times of tension between what God wants and what we want. We’ll get confused at times. We’ll question our motivation. We never have to question God’s responsiveness or trustworthiness. God purely and securely loves us. He wants us to desire him and longs to give us the desires of our hearts. As we yield to him, inviting him to invade every crevice of our lives, our desires are consumed by his desires.

Second, we’re to “commit” our “way.” In the original Hebrew language, way means a pathway. Commit means to roll. In this verse, to commit indicates our ways being rolled onto God’s. We entrust our path to God. We give up our path to his. Our path becomes his path. Once we completely yield, there is no distinction between his and ours. Ours is now his.

We yield. We trust. We commit.

God gives.

The process is active. Yielding, trusting, and committing don’t automatically happen. We must be attentive and responsive. We must be teachable. We must be willing to invite God to reveal the pieces of our lives we’re withholding – intentionally or not – from God.

We don’t yield, trust, and commit in order to get what we want. Being selfish is counter-productive to the truth of these verses. Only in humility can we yield. Only with trust can we commit.

If you’re following Christ, what are your intentions? Consider the “why” of your faith.

In what areas of your life are you struggling to yield, trust, or commit? What areas are you ignoring?

Be intentional as you take the next steps. God has a perfect pathway ready for you. Will you step onto it in faith?