Joel Osteen Podcast - Our Delight In The Lord Shapes Our Desires | Victoria Osteen

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

God wants to do something extraordinary in your life! When you delight in Him, He will prepare you to receive the dreams and desires of your heart.Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visit JoelOsteen.com/GiveHope.Encounter the Savior who offers His provision and power in every moment. He Is I AM, the God who is with you always. Request our March offer and discover anew the presence and abundance of I Am—God is your answer right now, https://bit.ly/43F8PqH. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. You know, we all want God to do great things in our life. I think the cry of our heart is, God, do something in me and through me. But you know what's interesting about God's promises is they always come with a condition. usually we have to do something and then God will do something.

It comes with a condition, a stipulation. You know, I find it very interesting because if God can get us to move, then he can move. It's almost as if his condition prepares our heart. It postures us to receive what he has. You see, if we just wish all day, if we're just fishing in the wishing pond, we're not doing anything. God says, I am a partner with you. We are joint heirs in Jesus Christ. He wants us to be active and participate in what he wants to do in our life. So as we're standing here saying, God, do something amazing through me and in me, bring forth my desires. Listen to what

God's condition is. It's found in Psalm 37, 5, and the Bible says it like this. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. When you delight yourself in God, he will shape in you his desires so that he can bring the best out of you. God wants to shape in you his desires. We all want our desires to come to pass. Oh, we love to hear God's promises. We want God's promises. But what are we delighting in? What are we pursuing? What are we given our time to? You see, the scripture says that when we delight in the Lord, which means when we find joy and happiness and pleasure in God, it will shape those desires for God. You see, sometimes we have the wrong desires, and we're struggling, trying to make those things happen.

I think sometimes we get it backwards. We have a desire and we forget to find out what we delight in. We forget what gives us fulfillment. We forget to pursue those things that give us joy, peace and strength and allow those things to shape us our delight, shapes, our desires. When Joel and I first started dating, I worked in my family's jewelry store. I worked on Saturdays, so I would take off on Fridays. Joel worked at the church, so Sunday he would tape his father's messages, he would edit them,

get them ready to be broadcast on television. And so he worked on Sundays and I worked on Saturday, so we basically didn't see each other on the weekend that much. So since I took off on Fridays, Joel decided that he was going to take off on Fridays. The only thing was this. On my day off on Friday, I wanted to go to the day. the mall. I wanted to run errands. I wanted to do the things that I needed to do on my day off. But you know, what was really great is Joel didn't care. Joel wanted to be with me.

So Joel would go to the mall. He would go with me to the mall because he just wanted to spend the day with me. He delighted in that. When we first started dating, Joel had season tickets to the Rockets. In fact, this was the former compact center for those of you who don't know, and our first date was right here at a Rockets basketball game. He was such a fan. He loved the games. And I love Joel.

I love to be with him anyway at that point. You could say I delighted in Joel. So it motivated me to go to the basketball games. It motivated me to become a basketball. sports fan. See, I doubt it if I didn't enjoy being with Joel. I doubt I would have been so ambitious to go to all those basketball games. And I can tell you this. If Joel wouldn't have found joy in being with me, he wouldn't have been in the mall. You see, he liked the mall because he liked being with me. Do you get what I'm trying to say here? Our deletive. Our deletive.

light shapes our desires. It wasn't the mall, Joel liked. It was being with me he liked. It wasn't that I was such an avid fan. I just wanted to be with Joel. So I became a fan. Isn't it interesting when we delight in the Lord? We want what God wants for us. We want to do what God does. We want to be where God is, the things that are important to God, all of a sudden become very important to us. You see, God wants to shape your desire when you delight in him, when you find fulfillment in him. He wants to put those dreams in you that will come to pass. He wants you to dream big dreams, but he already has a plan for you.

when you delight in him, then your dreams will come to pass. I find it interesting that the Apostle Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 6, and this is the message translation, and it really sums up what I'm trying to say. It says, the heart regulates the hands. Paul was saying what you have in your heart, what you find delight in, you're going to put your hands to. See, what is in your heart? is going to drive you with great passion and determination. Your hands and your heart go together,

just like your delight and your desire. See, the apostle Paul was saying, when your heart's right, you'll put your hands to the right thing. God wants your heart to be his garden. He wants to plant his dreams and his desires in your heart. Because he wants to bring forth God opportunities. He wants to bring forth out of you, God miracles, God moments in 2017. Listen, don't let the wrong desires cause you to struggle. Spend your time with God. Find out what he wants you to do, delight in him, take pleasure in the fact that he is your God, that he chose you, that his plan for you are good and not evil. They're to give you a future and a hope. You see, God wants our best. He doesn't want our leftovers. God doesn't want the end of your day when you're tired and a little

miserable. God wants the best of your day. Get up every morning and greet God with a good morning, God. Oh, God, it's morning. See, God wants our first fruits. Throughout the day, we should have conversation with God. We should consult him for our decisions, bring him into our relationships, take him on the job with us, put his word in our heart. Because when his word is in our heart, what will happen is it will come up out of us. It will guide us and give us great counsel and wisdom. Joel's dad used to say it like this. Put God's word in your heart when you don't need it, and it'll come out of you when you do need it. God's wisdom will come out of you. God's wisdom will come out of you. You know, Psalm 37 says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires

of your heart. Then it goes on to say, commit your ways to God, and he will do this. And it begins to say how you will overcome. Any challenge you face, he will be there. Your enemies won't get the best of you. You see, he's talking about delighting yourself, creating a desire for God. Then your roots go down deep so you can be committed. You see, I delighted in being with Joel. I delighted in his friendship. I delighted getting to know him. My desire was formed that he would be my spouse. I married him. Thirty years later, I'm committed to that guy. My roots are down deep. Hey, through the highs and through the lows, he's mine and I'm his. There's a commitment that's been formed. See, there's a system to this. God is saying, delight before desire, desire will take root and commitment will steady you, strengthen you,

and anchor you, and I will do this. He's saying when you're committed, you'll do what you don't feel like doing. He's saying when you're committed, you'll realize even when it's hard, on the other side there's a great reward. He's saying sooner or later, my way is the best way. Be committed and hang on in 2017. I'll get you where you need to be. God is a faithful God. He wants our heart. He wants our heart so that we can put our hands to his business, to his kingdom, so we can be successful. We can be happy. Listen, we serve a happy God. God is up in heaven. The Bible says laughing and enjoying things. And he wants us down here, accomplishing, laughing, enjoying, overcoming going from victory to victory. We serve a God who is committed to us. So let's be

committed to him. I believe if we will take time to invest and delight and dwell in our God, that he will ignite those passions and those desires. And we will abound in his grace. And we will be committed. Our hearts and our hands will be moving in the right direction. and I believe we'll see miracles happen that we never even expected. Amen. Amen. He's an awesome God. When we face challenges, it's easy to feel like God has forgotten about us. We don't see anything happening. Thoughts tell us it's not going to work out. But God is not called the great I was or the great I will be. He's called the Great I Am. In my new book, He Is I Am, you'll discover that God is with you in every area of your life. I AM is always in the present.

Not at a later time. God is working in your life right now. I am means I am your healer. I am your provider. I am your waymaker. Whether you're facing a challenge or pursuing your dreams, stay in faith.

The great I Am is right there with you. As our way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount this month, we would like to send you a copy of Joel's book. He is, I Am. God is for you, here and now. Are you in need of protection or provision today? Jesus assures us, I am the good shepherd. Does the path ahead seem uncertain or dark? Jesus declares, I am the light of the world. Do you feel like

your career, calling, or marriage is beyond hope? Jesus promises, I am the resurrection and the life. With every I am statement, you'll discover more about who God is and what he has made available for you. Not someday, but today. Request your copy today and watch God's promise come alive. No matter what you face, He is here and now for you. Be sure to request your copy of He Is I Am. God is for you here and now. Today, visit Joelosteen.com or call 888-567, Joel.

You're never alone. The Great I Am is behind the scenes, making ways, opening doors, turning things in your favor. Victoria and I want you to know we love you and we pray for you every day. Thanks for your prayer and support of the ministry. Your generosity is making a difference in people's lives around the world.

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watch our YouTube channel and the new Joel Osteen Network streaming on television 24 hours a day. But until we see you next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Be sure to request your copy of He Is I Am. God is for you here and now today. Visit Joelosteen.com or call 888-567 Joel. For an additional donation this month, we are offering the I Am collection. It includes a beautiful two-piece scripture wall art, plus the He Is I Am book bundle. The stretched canvas elegantly features I Am and scripture reference John 146.

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