What Do You Desire?

What do you really want in life? I don't mean more money or a newer car or something, but in a more permanent sense -- what you want people saying at your funeral, or the legacy you want to pass on to your children and others. What really matters to you? God Almighty is willing to give you those desires:  "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you." Really? Yes, really!

Now, you might have heard some of the many preachers out there, who say that we can just tell God (in faith, of course) what we want and he is obligated to give it to us -- which turns God into a cosmic vending machine. But instead, when we trust our deepest desires to him, that trust begins to align our hearts with his. How do I know that? Because all our deepest desires come from an even more fundamental part of our makeup:  that we are children of God from before creation, before our birth, and that nothing else, read that NOTHING else, is going to satisfy us. Do you know dissatisfied people? A lot of them have fancy cars and big bank accounts, but no real satisfaction because they're using those things to fill up the black hole in the center of their hearts.  What they really need, and what God is drawing you and me to pay close attention to, is our desire for him, and him alone.

Rather than trying to bolster that statement with a long list of scriptures -- which I could -- I want to ask you to spend some time carefully thinking and praying through what I've just written, and see what God tells you. Ask yourself -- "if I had all the money and power and prestige in the world, would that be enough? If I just had my health back, would that be enough? If only... "Try replacing those things we all daydream about with a vision of absolute security, love, acceptance, mercy, and eternal significance in the arms of God. What is the result of your time of prayer and meditation?

So here's the deal: you can have that deepest desire fulfilled, even more than you dreamed, by a steady diet of listening to God and letting him guide you. Being united with Christ in our day-to-day thinking, letting him fill our thoughts with his mind, is the most meaningful human existence possible, and it's possible for you too. It doesn't happen overnight, and it takes steady effort, but it does happen. Do you want it enough to put out the effort?