Gò0dNews for Everyone
Heart’s Desires
W
by April Engstrom
hat do storms and love have to do with one
But God did not forget His promise, and He remembers
another, and how is God involved? It seems
those promises He made to you too. That’s the beautiful
like the month of February is full of both. This
thing about the Bible, its promises are there for each and
is my story of how, in the middle of the storms of life, God
every one of us. When we take the time to delight in the
fulfilled the desires of my heart.
Lord, when He becomes our first love, and when we draw
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the
near to Him with our whole heart, He is faithful!
desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, ESV). We all long to have our prayers answered, for our lives to bring good things, and to be blessed. We cling to the promises of the Bible as to a lifeline holding us up when the waters get treacherous and the storms of life threaten us. They are promises of hope, promises that yes, our God cares about the little things our hearts long after. Through life, the longing of our hearts ebb and flow to fit where we are. This is such a deep part of the blessing of this verse that can be missed. It’s not that God isn’t fulfilling them, but He often uses where we are in life to show us what His heart desires for us in that season. When I was young, my number one heart desire was for a husband. I prayed, begged, and pleaded with God all through my teens for Him to show me my husband. Then at sixteen, it suddenly felt like
My story didn’t end there, and it still continues. In the
it would be impossible. Have you ever faced a storm so big
midst of the pain, God brought me a husband who was
that it felt like all your dreams were fading before your eyes
willing to take on my life sentence and the limitations it
and the desire of your heart was slipping away? Of course,
brought. God gave me seven beautiful years of full healing
you have, we all have. That’s the hard thing about faith, we
and remission, during which time we traveled the world for
have to keep clinging to promises even when we can’t see a
Jesus and had two beautiful boys. He conquered pain and
way out.
suffering brought us life.
At sixteen, this storm for me was the sudden onset
I pray as you go through this year that you will find as
of extreme full-body nerve pain—what would later be
you cling to God our Father, and delight yourself in Him,
diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Life stopped. And then, in the
that He will fulfill your life and you will see how He has
pain-stricken dark nights, it started again. I had to re-
given you the desires of your heart.
find my identity. All of a sudden, health was even more those even be possible when I was looking at a life sentence of chronic pain?
24 // February 2022
About The Author
important than a future spouse and children. How would
April Engstrom resides in Bradley County with her husband and two boys. She loves her family at the Church at Grace Point and exploring God’s creation.
