Charles Stanley Daily Devotional 9 April 2026 (In Touch) Thursday Message
Charles Stanley Daily Devotional TOPIC: The Desires of Your Heart
SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY: Psalms 37:4-7
God wants to be the passion of every believer’s life. If we claim to love the Lord, our connection with Him should have priority over everything else. Yet we often miss the true message of Psalm 37:4 by wrongly assuming the verse means we can get what we want.
In context, that scripture reveals the Lord’s principle for purifying our desires, and it issues a call for devotion to Him. To delight in the Lord means to take pleasure in discovering more about Him and following His will. This leads to the Holy Spirit aligning our heart’s desires with God’s, which always puts us in position to experience His blessings.
When we commit our way to God, we allow our thoughts, goals, and lifestyle to be shaped by His will and the things He loves. In other words, we acknowledge His right to determine whether our longing fits His plan. If we rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, then we will rely on Him to work out circumstances, even when the desire He’s given us seems impossible.
If we make God our first love (Matthew 6:33), our heart will become focused on making His glory known in our life through obedience. And when we’re aligned with our Father’s will, He’ll give us our heart’s desires in His time. That’s the picture of fulfillment, isn’t it? We’ll simply have no need for anything else.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Samuel 15-17
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: When we make loving God our highest priority, He transforms our desires to match His perfect will for us.
Dr. Charles F. Stanley was the founder of In Touch Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author. Throughout his ministry, he demonstrated a keen awareness of people’s needs and provided Christ-centered biblically based principles for everyday life.