Delight yourself in ADONAI [the LORD], and He will give you the requests of your heart. Psalm 37:4, TLV

Requesting in Gratitude.  We all have desires, yes? But are these the requests we present to our Heavenly Father? I love that the translators used requests rather than desires.

A desire is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. On the other hand, a request is an act of asking politely or formally for something. The desire carries great emotion — which isn’t always negative, but can be. Requests makes a desire known and respectfully presents it.

The picture I see is of a child who says, “I want! I want! I want!” as opposed to the child who sits in the Father’s lap and says, “May I please.”

As a child, I wanted to write. I had no idea what that entailed, but, I wanted it, I wanted it, I wanted it. That desire didn’t fully develop into a request until I was able to understand the responsibility of walking out that gift. Even after the “formal” request, it was years before Father said, “Here. Take good care of this gift.”

During the waiting season, I began learning how to be grateful in all things, because in that place I could delight myself in the LORD. Delight because He had been generous in so many ways. But because I allowed my desires to get in the way, I couldn’t see the wonder of His love right now.

Are we still waiting for a desire of our heart? Have we formally requested this of the LORD? No? It’s time, yes? Crawl into His lap and speak this request.

If we have, then, wait. Find the place of gratitude then delight in the LORD where we are. Sometimes it is a sacrifice of praise. Other times it is a necessary reminder of how blessed we already are right now.

Delight yourself in the LORD, my friends, and those requests? Well, they are before the Creator of the Universe, your Daddy.