Day 21: How to Receive God’s Guidance

We have studied God's promise to give wisdom to all who ask Him in faith. We have seen that the wisdom presented in the Bible is not 'super-spiritual' or dependent upon understanding complicated theological jargon. Rather, it is simple, practical, and down-to-earth.

We are now going to deal with one particular way in which we often need wisdom and in which God makes it available to us. It can be summed up in one word: guidance. Or if you want a longer phrase: how to find the right way in each situation and circumstance of our life. The promises of God cover this need. We will turn, first of all, to the promises that are found in Psalm 37:4-5:

"Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it." (NASB)

I believe the first part describes the kind of people who qualify for the promise of the second part. The promise is: "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it."

But before we look at the promise, let's look at the kind of people that this promise is addressed to. God says: "Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart."

When I was a young believer, I understood that verse in this way: that if I take pleasure in God and do what God wants, then He will give me the things that I want – the things I want to do or to enjoy. But as I became more mature, I saw that the promise goes much deeper than that. If I delight myself in the Lord, if I really seek to please the Lord and find my satisfaction in Him, then He will give me the desires of my heart in this sense: that by the Holy Spirit He will implant in my heart the desires that He wants to fulfil, and my desires will become godly and God-pleasing rather than self-centred and self-pleasing.

So, delighting yourself in the Lord will lead to a change in your desires, your motives, and your ambitions. And instead of being selfish and self-centred, you will receive from God – by the Holy Spirit – desires and motives and ambitions which are godly and God-centred. And through answering those desires and fulfilling those ambitions, God will be glorifying Himself and extending His kingdom.

To claim the promise, we have to become the kind of people who delight ourselves in the Lord in such a way that He implants in our hearts those desires which He Himself wants to fulfil. And let me say those desires are much better for us, much more profitable; they will do us much more good than our own selfish, personal, natural desires and ambitions which are often harmful to ourselves.