God is an orderly God. He has plans. He has purposes. He has desires. And all of which, He “plants” into the heart of those love Him. But if He is so orderly and precise in His ways, does He use such order in how He goes about planting His Kingdom plans, His holy list, into our hearts? I believe there is, and we find it in Scripture.
First, He knows that any burden we bear must go. Burdens are debilitating in our life and that’s why He has lovingly instructed us to cast them off onto Him, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22
He cares. He truly cares about you, and that is why He calls you to cast. Cast off that burden you are carrying. And not just that one most weighted burden, but He says … cast them all. Everything. Every burden from your past, your present. Every financial burden. The burden of loss. The burden of regret. The burden of feeling misunderstood. You know what all the burdens are you carry, and that is why the first concern on your Father’s list is for you to live: “Casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7 He will never stop caring for you. So, praise Him as you give Him your burdens because He has promised to bear them for you. Day after day, He bears our burdens. “May the Lord be praised! Day after day He bears our burdens; God is our salvation,” Psalm 68:12
Second, after enabling us to give Him all our burdens and cares, He plants “His will” as “our heart’s desires.” As we trust Him with our life, He begins placing into our minds “heavenly thoughts.” Thoughts of activities, thoughts of plans, thoughts of ways, thoughts of desires that we will begin to take much delight in! Why? Because He will act! Literally, our mind begins to think His thoughts for our life, (we think His holy list), and we become very passionate people due to the display of His glory. All our heart’s desires are to come from Him. How do I know this? Look to Scripture:
“Commit your activities to the Lord, and your plans will be achieved.” Prov. 16:3
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act,” Psalm 37:5
“Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.” Psalm 37:4
Think about it….what becomes our heart’s desires, were FIRST on His list for our life! Yes, He has a list. According to Scripture, it is a list of “works” that were created for us in Christ Jesus, that God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in those works…walk in fulfilling His list. “For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.
These works were FIRST His purposes and plans for us from His own heart, before they become the desires of our own heart. But those burdens and cares of our life must go…they will only choke out His holy list from becoming deeply rooted within us. They will only choke out the life of passion and delight He has for us.
Let’s make this our prayer today but personalize it with your name in place of the words you and your.
“May He give you what your heart desires and fulfill your whole purpose,” Psalm 37:5
And when THAT happens…we move from living burdened to living victorious!! Our very life is a “shout of joy” at His victory in fulfilling all our requests!!
“Let us shout for joy at your victory and lift the banner in the name of our God. May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.” Psalm 20:4-5
I love your post. As reading and watching the video, I began to wonder how do,we sort through our thoughts to know that it is not “our” thoughts or ones of deception and are God’s thoughts?
That is such a good question, NiCole, and in the next video I’ll talk on just that! Knowing how to discern the thoughts is key, so I hope I can help bring some understanding to that area of our walk with God.