If my heart is good, the Lord will grant my petitions

From: September 12-18, 2006 Study: # 461

TOPIC: “If my heart is good, the Lord will grant my petitions” Psalms 37:4-13 God will grant our petitions according to what is in us, and according to how we ask. If in our heart there is evil, then there are no good desires for others and we cannot hope for our own lives the good things that come from God. There must be good in our hearts in order for God to grant us our petitions. To those that have well inside God will answer the petitions of their heart. If we believe, it will become a fact. The heart is silent; it doesn't speak, it keeps everything very quietly. But, it is an explosive and dangerous bomb. When evilness is accumulated in the heart, what is spoken is poison. For this reason we should accumulate all that is good, all that is established in the Kingdom of God. Philippians 4:8 In our heart there are many good petitions for others that surround us and God is the only one who can answer them. As the church of God we must take good care of our hearts because it is perverse, and if we don't take care of it and we don't take pleasure in God we will contaminate ourselves with this world. We sometimes think that we can enjoy the pleasures of this world, but our delight should be in Jehovah because the things in which we delight ourselves here in this world will not be there tomorrow. We should delight ourselves in Jehovah and not in what is worldly and will perish. There must never be in us anxiety and eagerness. Sometimes we feel that God is not there and we begin to feel overloaded. What we should never forget is that God is always ours and we must delight in Him. We are exposed to sufferings, penalties (Acts 14: 22) and if we don't delight ourselves in the Lord we won't be able to endure it. Sometimes the struggles and sufferings seem greater than delighting in Jehovah. If we delight in Him we will be able to tolerate all that comes against us. We must delight in Jehovah and let Him speak to us clearly. One day we will die, this body will die, so we have to delight in Jehovah and not let everything that surrounds us steal our faith. One day we will be with Him, but we must know what it means to rejoice in God here on earth and rejoice for His care as our Father. Jehovah worries about us. We rejoice in Him because we are His children. The day will come when we will arrive to Heaven, but if on earth we did not learn how to rejoice in God, what will happen when we get to Heaven? Here on earth we practice to rejoice in Him and enjoy it. In all we do we must rejoice in Jehovah and then He will grant the petitions of a heart that knows him. He is our delight, we rest in Him and we have learned to recognize that we are alive and that the penalties we go through are just part of this earthly Kingdom. We must be soldiers, we must know how to fight, how to struggle. Those of us who want God to be glorified must rejoice likewise in Jehovah because in His time He will answer the petitions of our heart. Sometimes instead of rejoicing in Jehovah we are complaining. We must understand that we must face life as it is, struggling. A great English preacher, by the name of Spurgeon said: “don't fight against your enemies, the battle is not ours but of God." We must stop living broken-hearted and afflicted but we must rejoice in our God. Exodus 14:14 Jehovah will fight for us and we will be calm. We cannot present before God any evil or perverse desire that is in our heart. Because we are sent to do good deeds. To rejoice in Jehovah is a duty, a commandment that gives us a promise which says that He will grant the petitions of our heart. He did not promise to satisfy the appetites of the flesh but those of the heart. Let us aspire to the most intimate, elevated of the spirit.

Sometimes sin is hidden, quiet. Let us commend our road to Jehovah, we must speak the truth. Vs.5 Jehovah cannot grant the petitions of a heart that has not presented his/her path to Him. We depend on God. He is who blesses us, and if we want to have well in our life we must be transparent. What a relief it is when we confess our wrong doing because then God begins to move on our behalf. We must always trust that Jehovah will be the one that will do. It is better for us to leave in His hands the results, let us expect from Him the blessings. What is twisted in us is what drives us out of the road. For the blessings to come we must activate our faith. The more we become distressed the worse it will be for us. Our strength consists on being still because God will exhibit our justice as light. Vs.6 Do not be desperate. Jehovah will bring the slanderer to the light. If we occupy ourselves in adoring Him, in His honor, then He will take care of us. It is wonderful when faith learns how to calmly resist the slander so that the dirt will not contaminate our faith. Let us remain silent before our God, let us be quiet. Vs.7 But we like to open our mouth. We must not murmur or complain before God and all that will happen will be for the well-being of the chosen ones. Jehovah is our supplier (Genesis 22:14), everything He allows is for our well-being. If we wait in Him everything will work for good. We must keep silently in submission, not in anger or rage. We must have a determination in our lives to wait in Jehovah, we must rest in Him. Let us not worry about those who prosper, this is not our problem; our problem should be to determine ourselves on waiting in Jehovah. For those who practice wickedness, time will bring its best payment and it will be discovered, who was right and who was wrong. A lying tongue is only good for a moment, but the truth is the daughter of time. In us there should never be anger or rage. Vs.8 If we become distressed because of the prosperity of those who are evil, it will be bad for our health. The tongue digs its own tomb. Those who are evil will be destroyed. Vs. 9 Let us not worry about those who are thieves, the adulterer, the liar, because these become a fleeting cloud that passes away, they will be erased by their own excess of confidence, etc. Vs.10 The arrogant spirits move to conquer those who are meek, to whip them, and to put them in a corner, but at the end those who are meek will inherit the earth. Vs.11 Those who are evil will see the day of their destruction. For this reason, I will rejoice in my God and He will grant me the petitions of my heart. Amen.