Our key verse for today is this:

"Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

We actually started talking about this verse last week. I have received some incredible feedback from that message. And I guess the thing that surprised me the most is simply that,

a) so many Christians have never given themselves permission to a consider the desires of the heart, and
b) so few believe that they have a Father in heaven, who actually cares about those desires.

Here's the truth: No matter what your earthly father was like, I can guarantee you that your Father in heaven wants what's best for you.

He wants to give you the desires of your heart.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

You are a new creation. You have a new nature. Any desires you have that make you contradict your new nature are from your flesh, and not from the real you.

You have an inheritance. You have a birthright. You are an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. You are spiritual royalty. You are spiritual nobility. Rise up to your high calling. Never stoop beneath your rank.

God always calls people as he sees them, not as the world sees them. And not even as they see themselves.

When the people said, We are grasshoppers in their sight, through Caleb, God said, "You are well able to conquer this land" (Numbers 13:30).

When God found Gideon literally hiding from his enemies in a hole, God said, Greetings, Mighty Man of Valor. (Judges 6:12)

When Mephibosheth called himself a dead dog, through David, God called him a Child of the King. (2 Samuel 9:8)

When God's people actually named themselves, Forsaken and Miserable, God reminded them: your true names are Delightful and Beautiful. (Isaiah 62:4)

Joseph was thrown in prison, but he never identified as a prisoner. So he literally came to rule the world.

Daniel was taken hostage as a teenager in Babylon, and Esther was taken hostage as a teenager in Persia, but they never forgot who they really were, so they never identified as victims. And both of them became rulers of the known world.

Identity is everything. Who you are in the deepest part of your heart, that is the person God is trying to unbury from the avalanche of sin.