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Just a reminder, our verse for this week is Psalm 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”

We’re memorizing this verse because it reminds us to wait patiently for God to work in and through us! Yesterday, we said the verse in a lot of silly voices. Today, we are going to write out our verse. So, go ahead and grab a paper and a pen, and some crayons or markers if you want. Next, write out each word of the verse, BE STILL BEFORE THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM. Then write the reference, this means where the verse is found in the Bible, PSALM 37:7.

Take a few minutes and decorate your verse however you want! Writing out our Bible verse can help us to slow down and remember each word as we write them!

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

Unfortunately, this verse does not mean that if you trust Jesus with your heart, you get everything on your Christmas list. Really, that is truly unfortunate. Instead, this verse reminds us that when we truly follow Jesus, He does something in our hearts. He shapes and molds the things we bring before Him. This could be our successes or failures, our worst days or our best days, even our deepest secrets and our desperate longings, He wants us to come to Him with all of it, and then He aligns our hearts to His.

Oftentimes, we desire good things. We want to do really well in school, because we desire to graduate college one day. Or maybe we work really hard at practice because we desire to play a professional sport one day. 

Other times, we desire things we know we shouldn’t. We want to give up because things feel too hard. We want to engage in the activity we know isn’t good for us. We continue scrolling, allowing our minds to be filled with comparison and worry, when we know we should stop.

The truth is, Jesus knows what it is like to desire something, He also knows what it’s like to be tempted. And still, just before He went to the cross, He prayed, not my will but yours be done. God is always working and as we bring all of ourselves before Him and all His will to take root, we begin to see the desires of our hearts shifting and moving to align more with His good and perfect will.

What desires do you have on your heart that you want to learn how to trust God with? 

Write those desires, and write a prayer asking God to align your heart with His. For example, maybe you ant to be a wedding planner. Maybe you could pray something like this; God, I pray that You would open the door for an opportunity to work in event planning, but God if that is not Your will, help me to see what You have next for me.

“Shape our desires, that we may long for what Your arrival brings.”

Psalm 37:4 (ESV) Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

As we prepare our hearts for Christ's coming, we are invited to allow the Lord to shape our deepest longings and desires. Too often, we cling to our own agendas, our own notions of what we believe we need or want. But true fulfillment can only be found in aligning our hearts with God's perfect purposes. The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Left to our own devices, our desires can lead us astray, trapping us in a cycle of dissatisfaction and discontentment. Our hearts are prone to wander, easily captivated by the fleeting allures of this world - wealth, status, pleasure, power. We find ourselves chasing after hollow pursuits that leave us feeling empty and disillusioned. But as we submit ourselves to God's refining work, He begins to transform our wants, our needs, our very loves. The Advent season encourages us to press pause on our self-centered agendas and instead ask the Lord to reshape the core of who we are. What do we truly long for? What are the deepest desires of our hearts?

What does the arrival of Christ truly promise? Forgiveness, restoration, eternal life. As we wait with open hands and yielded hearts, may the Lord cultivate in us a longing for the salvation, peace, and joy that only He can bring. May our desires be reordered to mirror the heart of our Heavenly Father, who longs for His wayward children to return home. 

This Advent season, the Spirit may expose any idols or false hopes that have taken root in our lives. Are we clinging to temporary pleasures or chasing after the hollow pursuits of this world? Or are we positioning ourselves to receive the full, lasting joy of Christ's incarnation? Perhaps we have grown complacent in our faith, our longings for God's kingdom crowded out by the allure of earthly comfort and convenience. Or maybe we are wrestling with disillusionment, our hopes for a better world shattered by the brokenness we see all around us. In these moments, Advent invites us to surrender our agendas and embrace God's transformative work.

As we yield our desires to the Lord, He will begin to reorder our loves, aligning our deepest longings with His perfect plan. We may be surprised to find our wants shifting, our priorities rearranging, as we are conformed more and more into the image of Christ. But in this sacred process of transformation, we discover the true satisfaction that can only be found in a life surrendered to God. No longer shackled to our own selfish ambitions, we are liberated to embrace the joy and peace that Christ's arrival promises. Our eyes are opened to see the world through the lens of God's redemptive purposes. Our hearts are stirred to long for the restoration of all things, the triumph of justice, and the reign of the Prince of Peace. This Advent, we may ardently pray, "Shape our desires, that we may long for what Your arrival brings." For in aligning our deepest wants with the heart of our Heavenly Father, we find the true fulfillment our souls have been yearning for all along.

Take a moment to reread today’s Scripture passage and then spend some time reflecting on the following questions:

Psalm 37:4 (ESV) Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

• What do you most deeply desire this Advent season? How can you allow God to shape those desires to align with His will?