who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:5

If only we would ask, our desires would be satisfied – not necessarily with what we want, but with better things.

It’s an interesting prayer: “satisfy the desires of my heart.” We pray it but often don’t mean it.

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:2-3

Instead it’s probably more appropriate for us to pray, “show me what I should be desiring, then give me that.”

It seems like a nuance of the “satisfy the desires of my heart” prayer, but there’s a world of difference. You see, our desires get mixed up with our greed and selfish desires. We have wrong motives.

We might well consider asking God about our motives in our prayer as well. As the King James says, “if we have ears to hear”, He’ll show us our motives.

The question remains, though, are you ready for that response?