Praying for Your Deepest Desires

[Praying for Your Deepest Desires]( Current Teaching Series [Seeking God for a Breakthrough]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [Praying for Your Deepest Desires]( By Rick Warren — 09/17/2021 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires." Psalm 37:4 (NLT) Persistent prayer tests your desires. When you start praying for a breakthrough, you’re going to find that your prayer evolves and develops as you hone in on what you really want. Everybody has desires. The reason you have desires is because God put them in you. All God’s gifts are good, but a desire can be misused, abused, and perverted. Fire is good in the fireplace, but fire in the wrong place can burn a house down. There are good desires in your life, and there are bad ones too. There are appropriate and inappropriate desires in your life, helpful and harmful, constructive and destructive. When you pray persistently, your desires are filtered, and God reveals which desires are good and which are not. Persistent praying also shows the difference between a whim and deep desire. If you ask God for something just one time, that’s not a deep desire. It’s just a whim. God is not in the business of fulfilling your every whim. As your heavenly Father, he is more interested in taking care of your deepest desires. Ultimately, God does want to give you your desires. But he just wants to make sure that he’s your first desire and everything else is secondary. As you pray persistently, your heart is turned more and more toward God and the things he loves. Then you begin to desire those things that honor God and keep him first in your heart. There is almost nothing that God won’t do for the woman or man who puts God first in every area of their life. The Bible promises, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires” (Psalm 37:4 NLT). God is not stingy. He’s waiting on you to ask! Delight yourself in the Lord. Give him your attention as you pray persistently and filter out the whims so that you are praying your deepest desires. [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - What is something you prayed for that God didn’t provide, but now you see that it was just a whim? Did God provide something else instead? - In what ways do you take delight in the Lord? - How can you keep track of your prayers so that you can see how consistently and persistently you have prayed for something? The post [Praying for Your Deepest Desires]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( [Get the Experience God's Power Through Prayer Guided Experience Book when you give a gift to support Daily Hope]( When you want to see transformation in your life—whether in your health, career, finances, or relationships—you have two choices. You can either look to man-made solutions to meet your needs, which may work for a little while . . . Or you can look to God—the only dependable source for all your needs. To help you tap into God’s power by developing a more persistent, faith-building prayer life, we want to send you Pastor Rick’s guided study book, Experience God’s Power Through Prayer. This dynamic, hardcover book, filled with full-color devotionals, Bible teachings, Scripture, and engaging exercises, provides inspiration that will dramatically transform your prayer life. And if you’re able to become a Partner in Hope with your first monthly gift below, we’ll also send you an exclusive Daily Hope welcome gift to say thanks. [LEARN MORE]( [Complete Audio Series (Purchase)]( Includes 5 full-length messages from Pastor Rick's series Seeking God for a Breakthrough. [LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: How to Pray in a Crisis Message 2: Praying and Fasting for a Breakthrough Message 3: How to Pray a Breakthrough Prayer Message 4: Talking to Your Heavenly Father Message 5: Why Must I Keep on Praying Persistently? [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( As the founding pastor of Saddleback Church with his wife Kay, Dr. Rick Warren leads a 30,000-member congregation in California with campuses in major cities around the world. As an author, his book [The Purpose Driven Life]( is one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has been translated into 74 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the century. Rick also founded [The PEACE Plan]( to address five global issues—spiritual emptiness, self-serving leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy—through the power of ordinary people in the local church. You can listen to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, his daily 25-minute audio teaching, and sign up for his free daily devotionals at [PastorRick.com](. © 2021 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You can unsubscribe by clicking the link below. Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, 23182 Arroyo Vista, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688, United States