What is your most inspiring vision right now? What are the goals you most want to achieve? Is there a dream driving you out of bed each morning?

What makes a leader is his or her daily striving. But as we yearn to succeed, God wants something beyond progress. He wants us to delight in him.

Does that sound sort of soft? “Delightful” is not a word that energizes me. But when we focus that delight on God by trusting, obeying and loving him, he has an amazing promise: He will give us the desires of our heart.

As we persevere toward progress, let’s delight in the Lord. Let’s find pleasure in him, even as he finds pleasure in us:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight.
—Psalm 19:14

As our relationship deepens in this way, he’ll grant us our deepest desires.

Excerpted from Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership, by Tom Harper (DeepWater Books, 2019).