The desires of our heart

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
This verse has often been misquoted, to say that if we are happy about God, He will give us anything we want. The trouble with this interpretation is that it makes God out to be a Santa Claus. What if what we want is something God knows will destroy us? Is He still obliged to give it to us? In essence, this interpretation takes away God’s sovereignty and means that He is no longer in control.
A better interpretation is this: when we delight in the Lord, He doesn’t give us what our hearts desire, but He gives us desires within our hearts. He places His desires for our lives, inside us. Then when we pray according to those, He is able to answer our prayers in the affirmative. As we live in this way, our will becomes more and more aligned with His.
So the key to finding this, is to delight yourself in the Lord. That is, we live our lives in order to please Him. If living for God is a burden to you, then you are not delighting in the Lord. But if living to serve and please God is a joy, then you are on the right track.
God wants only the best for you, ultimately. However, we need to understand that in order for Him to bring out those godly qualities in you, the road can often be hard to get there. But He has promised He won’t abandon us, and He has promised that there is nothing that will overwhelm us (1 Cor. 10:13). He will be with you every step of the way: just trust Him and obey Him.