Unmet Desires...
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[original post 4/13/16]
"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires." Psalm 37:4
For many, too many, years, I took this verse to mean: When God grants me the desires of my heart, I will delight in Him.
Even if I didn't express it out loud, I viewed my taking delight in Him only after I had received my current "desire".
If we really think about this, haven't we all had conditions on our love and delight in God?
We say all the right things at bible study, we can quote scriptures off the top of our heads...
But, do we really take delight in the Lord? Is He really our One True Desire?
I love how King David, my favorite man in all the world, states His desire for God. Read what he says to God and let it take your precious breath away.
Subscribe to SHINE emails: Go here.
[original post 4/13/16]
"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires." Psalm 37:4
For many, too many, years, I took this verse to mean: When God grants me the desires of my heart, I will delight in Him.
Even if I didn't express it out loud, I viewed my taking delight in Him only after I had received my current "desire".
If we really think about this, haven't we all had conditions on our love and delight in God?
We say all the right things at bible study, we can quote scriptures off the top of our heads...
But, do we really take delight in the Lord? Is He really our One True Desire?
I love how King David, my favorite man in all the world, states His desire for God. Read what he says to God and let it take your precious breath away.
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4
One thing David wants. One thing David seeks. The Lord.
This scripture is one I have taped to anything it will stick to. I desperately want God to be my one true desire.
However, when my hopes and dreams don't pan out the way I feel they should, that desire for Him can disappear. Oh, I can fake it with the best of them. I can smile my way through church and worship and small group. I can post flowery scriptures on Instagram declaring my love for God and His Word.
But, the Lord knows my heart. He knows the wall I have created because of the unmet desire.
Isn't it funny how we think we can punish God by pulling our heart away from Him for not granting us these desires? When all along, we are the one suffering from not delighting in Him. He surely is grieving over our messed up thinking. If we only knew how much He loved us and delighted in us. If only we knew that the answer to our sorrow and our hurt was found in Him. Not the unmet desire.
Oh, y'all. This is so personal to me. I can write about this because I know this so well. It has just been very recently that God has shed light on my heart regarding this very thing.
I have wrestled with Him. I have argued with Him. I have told Him how I could not believe Him or trust Him if He did not give me this desire. I have believed the lie that He has forgotten about me. Or worse yet, not seen me at all.
When all the while, the desire my soul was created to long for, was right there all along. In Him.
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1
Our hearts can lead us astray in desires. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that "the heart is deceitful above all things..."
We cannot be lead by our hearts but by our God. By the Holy Spirit Who dwells inside of us breathing God's desires into our souls.
Any desire, let me repeat, any desire, that overshadows our love for God will never work out for our good. Ever.
We can pray for better marriages, for our husbands to pray more, to have better children, to have more money, to have more discipline in our eating, to have babies, to get married, to have a boyfriend, to meet the man of our dreams, to get that job we want so badly....
However, when we make bargains with God to attain these things, we suffocate our desire for God. Those desires, even good ones, become idols.
“You shall have no other gods before me.“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Exodus 20:3-4
Our hearts grow cold when our demands are not met. We act like rebellious children when we don't see the fruit of our desires.
He is the fruit. He IS our One True desire.
Can we wrap our brains around the fact that we have ALL WE WILL EVER NEED. HE IS ENOUGH. END OF STORY.
I don't put that in all caps to yell, but to remind myself. To remind my own heart of what is at stake when I think something besides Him will make me happy. It just will not. It is a lie that the enemy loves to help us to believe. A big, fat, stinking, ugly LIE.
In Matthew 22:34-40, the Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up by asking Him what the greatest commandment was. They thought He would give them an answer that they could dispute and prove that He did not know what He was talking about. Oh, they were so wrong.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Any answer besides this one could have become an idol to us. We will never ever be led astray in our desires if we Love God and desire Him above anything else. And then right below that one, loving others as we love ourselves. Whew. Talk about piercing straight through the bloody walls that encase our beating hearts.
Jesus didn't "desire" to be hung on a cross and tortured. He desired to delight in God by doing the Will of God.
THIS, is where we find the missing piece to the gigantic hole in our hearts we have been trying to fill up with all the wrong stuff. When we die to our man-made desires and make HIM our One True Desire above anything or anyone else, we suddenly have all we ever need.
Don't be mistaken, God wants all of it and more for us. He loves us more than we can even begin to comprehend. But, He wants our hearts above it all. Completely, and utterly devoted to Him.
After all, we are and always have been His desire. We were created by Him, and for Him.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11
desiring Him alone,
jill
Any answer besides this one could have become an idol to us. We will never ever be led astray in our desires if we Love God and desire Him above anything else. And then right below that one, loving others as we love ourselves. Whew. Talk about piercing straight through the bloody walls that encase our beating hearts.
Jesus didn't "desire" to be hung on a cross and tortured. He desired to delight in God by doing the Will of God.
THIS, is where we find the missing piece to the gigantic hole in our hearts we have been trying to fill up with all the wrong stuff. When we die to our man-made desires and make HIM our One True Desire above anything or anyone else, we suddenly have all we ever need.
Don't be mistaken, God wants all of it and more for us. He loves us more than we can even begin to comprehend. But, He wants our hearts above it all. Completely, and utterly devoted to Him.
After all, we are and always have been His desire. We were created by Him, and for Him.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11
desiring Him alone,
jill
