Expectations: Surrendering To Scripture

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

Psalm 37:4

I have studied this passage regularly for about ten years. It is the only passage I can recall which has ever caused me to doubt the infallibility of the Word.

Early in my spiritual pilgrimage a saintly teacher pointed out the promise of Psalm 37:4. Immediately I began to appropriate this truth in my life for “the desires of my heart.” I claimed this verse as a promise for a business deal here and a possession there. I delighted in the Lord and waited patiently for Him to shower me with my heart’s desires. Most of the time they never came.

Doubts about the authority and reliability of the Word crept in. So I checked the Bible out. What I learned overwhelmed me. The Bible comprises a collection of sixty-six separate books written on three continents, in three languages, over a fifteen hundred year time span by thirty-seven different human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit. These included kings and peasants, philosophers and fishermen, poets and statesmen, shepherds and soldiers. Even with such remarkable diversity, the Scriptures by far possess the greatest unity and continuity among the great works of literature.

Manuscript evidence harpoons criticism on that front. Whereas only five complete manuscripts of Aristotle and twelve of Plato exist—universally regarded as the two greatest philosophers of history—thirteen thousand New Testament manuscripts have survived the centuries.

There is not room to mention in detail archaeological evidence such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the uncovering of forgotten kingdoms whose only record is the Bible. Nor does space allow to mention in detail three hundred fulfilled prophecies made four hundred to fifteen hundred years before Christ’s first coming, nor the track record of the Bible’s benefits to men and societies, nor the testimony of its authors.

After my investigation I chose to believe the Bible on faith. Not that I understood everything in it, but I accepted it was virtually impossible for such an incredible book to ever come into existence except by the hand of the Almighty. Still, Psalm 37:4 stalked me.

One morning a few years ago light exploded from this verse like brilliant flares from an electrical storm. I discovered that it was not that the verse was untrue, but that I had not yet penetrated the passage deeply enough.

I had not learned what the verse really meant. I had only superimposed my own expectations upon it. When it didn’t deliver, I assumed the verse was in error, not me. While that may be conspicuously foolish now—even arrogant—at the time no other reaction even occurred to me.

The word delight comes from a Hebrew word that means “to be soft or pliable.” So then, when we are to “delight” in the Lord, we are to be soft or pliable. In other words, to delight in the Lord is to be clay in the potter’s hands, to come humbly without heavy demands, to come eager to know the God who is and not the God we want, to come anxious for God to “make me” rather than for Him to “give me.”

When I finally surrendered my expectations of Psalm 37:4, a chain reaction initiated. I started coming to the Lord with a new attitude, one of softness and pliability. Instead of telling God what my desires were, I came to understand Him. What is His character? What are His attributes? How can I worship Him more acceptably?

Then the amazing began. God began to grant my desires. But here is the trick: As I surrendered my expectations and “delighted” in Him, the desires of my heart began to change. Through my newfound pliability, He changed my desires by making His desires come alive in me. Over time, His desires actually became my desires. And when my desires were one with His desires in a given area, He would grant them. He granted them because they were actually His desires (His will) now alive in me as the delight of my own heart and mind.

There are no contradictions in Scripture. What is not understood is a paradox or a mystery, but not contradiction. The Word will always resolve its own apparent contradictions and enigmas, either in this life or the life to come. What we do not yet understand does not make the Bible invalid. It only means that God has not yet chosen to reveal a particular truth to us. We will know it all in due time.

Our expectations need to be altered, not our belief in Scripture’s inerrancy. The Bible is not in error, we are. Believe the Word, not men. “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” (Isaiah 2:22). We are vapors that appear for a little while and then vanish, but the Word of God stands forever.

Are your expectations twisting the meaning of Scripture? Do you come to God soft and pliable, seeking Him as He really is? Or have you not yet surrendered your expectations to Him? Surrender your expectations and delight in Him; then He will give you the desires of your heart.

I SURRENDER

Dear God, I realize that I have superimposed selfish expectations onto the Bible and my personal relationship with You. I know that You are who You are, and that I must seek You as the God who is, not as the God I want. I surrender my expectations to You and ask You to change the desires of my heart until they are one with Yours. Amen.