The Desires of your Heart

I was recently asked to speak to the United Methodist Womens group of Sardinia (Ohio) United Methodist Church for their spring dinner. I was honored to speak to them but warned them that I'm a writer, not a speaker. I asked the Lord for direction on what to speak about and this is the message that He gave me...

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

This scripture has played an important part in my life without me even realizing it until recently.

I think it's more of a hindsight scripture - and maybe after I share my story,  you'll be able to look back over your life and have your own story to share.

For a lot of years, my husband and I were what I would call nominal Christians. We were in church every Sunday morning, we participated in Sunday school and helped with some of the duties of the church, but we weren't totally committed to Christ.

When we planned a move from our hometown of Springfield, Ohio to New Richmond, Ohio back in 1992, our hearts were changing. We prayed before we started looking for homes and asked God for His direction. We found the perfect house between Amelia and New Richmond. The house was located next door to Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church which became a growing place for our faith. We were challenged by our pastor to spend five more minutes each day in devotional time and I took him up on the challenge.

As I spent more time each day in Bible study and devotions, the Lord really began to speak to my heart. I wanted to serve Him, but wasn't exactly sure what He wanted me to do. I was searching for His will and my heart was dedicated to Him (I was delighting myself in the Lord)

A spell of bad weather, coupled with someone's sickness, gave me an opportunity to become the message board keeper at the church. The road where we lived is a well-travelled road and I viewed the church message board as a way to reach all those folks who drove up and down our road each day. I suppose you could say that it was the "desire of my heart" to place the Word of God along that stretch of road.

Scripture tells us that God's word will not return void, but will accomplish whatever God wants it to accomplish. "As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11) I truly believed that Word and I wanted to get God's Word out to the general public.

It was about the same time that I began keeping a journal and recording my prayer concerns and God gave me basic images to go along with my prayers and Bible studies. I was learning daily about the power of God and was like a sponge, just soaking up His Word.

I wanted to reach people with the good news, but the only tool that I had was the little message board and the church newsletter that I had started. When our time was over at Mt. Pisgah, we began going to Bethel United Methodist Church and I worked on the church newsletter, helped with the message board, taught a couple classes and continued journaling.

In 1998 my husband was transferred to Chicago and my faith continued to grow, my journal continued to be filled with primitive images and my heart still longed to share the good news.

When we moved back to the Cincinnati area in 2000, God began to open doors of opportunity for me. He knew that I had a strong desire to pray and helped me to study everything I could about prayer. I helped an old friend work on a newsletter for her church and started putting my journal writing and images together into a devotional format. 

I was working for Health UC as part-time office help.

I remember asking God one day to find a way for me to use my experience with page layout because it was something that I really enjoyed.

Another door opened when I was asked to layout two publications for Health UC. I had to work closely with The News Democrat publisher, Steve Triplett because the paper was going to print the publications. Shortly after I finished that task, I applied for a page layout job at the newspaper and was hired. It was an answer to my prayer - God knew the desires of my heart and what seemed impossible to me, was possible for God.

As I worked for the paper, other doors opened. They discovered that I could write articles and sent me on assignments. My creative juices began to flow as I found an outlet for my "hidden desires." 

One of the assignments I'm most proud of was the series that I wrote about cancer survivors to promote the Relay for Life in Brown County, Ohio. When I received an award for that series, it was incredible. It was confirmation for me that I could really write for the Lord.

The more I wrote, the more I wanted to write and then I began to write a column for the Sunday paper. My publisher was very supportive when I asked if I could share my faith in my column. I didn't want to become known as a religious fanatic, but with the paper being delivered to every house in the county, I had a huge platform to share the good news. 

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart...

When I posted those little messages on the church board, I had no idea that one day I would be writing a column for the newspaper. When I asked God to use me, I didn't really know that I had a talent for writing. Journal entries are one thing, but writing on a daily basis for others to read is something quite different. 

I did finish my devotional book, but so far - no publisher. But God has even helped me with that desire. In May 2009, I had been let go at The News Democrat because of budget cuts and I began posting my devotionals on this blog under the title "Getting to Know God." 

I prayed about that decision also and asked God to make those God-inspired devotions reach those who needed to know about His great love for them. 

I'm happy to report that as of this week, 13,219 people have viewed my blog. Everyday between 40 - 50 people from around the world access my blog and get to read about God's love. In the three years since I started it, people from the United Kingdom, Canada, the Philippines, Australia, India, Russia, South America, the middle east, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Singapore and South Africa have visited my blog. Today I am happy to say that I am sending God's Word around the world and it all started with a little message board at a little country church.

Does God know the desires of your heart? Look into your heart very closely and then be prepared when God starts fulfilling those desires.