Desire - Part 2

In Part 1, I spoke about knowing where the desire we have come from.  Are they born out of your wants or are they there because God placed them there?  If you are trying to fill the desires for the stuff you want apart from God, then you’ll be disappointed because what we desire is worthless.  God longs to replace our desires with something real and perfect.  So what more can be said? 

It’s easy to say that I want my desires to be consumed with and fulfilled by God, but actually doing so fully and completely isn’t as easy.  Sometimes, and I know this is true for me, we pick and choose what desires we want God to effect and hold onto the ones that we don’t think He will “get right”.  We somehow convince ourselves that God is not capable of handling the stuff that is really important.  We’re afraid that if we give every desire to God, He may not fulfill that desire the way we want and then it won’t be perfect, because if anyone knows perfect, we do…right?

I think this is a bigger issue than surrendering every desire completely to God.  I think it has more to do with complacency in our walk with and refusal to take the steps toward growing in Christ.  Our first desire should be Christ.  He is the perfect fulfillment of every desire.  If He is truly our first desire, all the other desires can be put into perspective behind Christ and more easily given to God.  A.W. Tozer addresses this, by saying, “The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of Holy desire… Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.  He waits to be wanted.  Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.”

Tozer said we should have an “Acute” holy desire for Christ.  That means that our desire for Christ should be of “critical importance and consequence”.  Our desire for Christ is so vital that without it Christ in His people will not be obvious or plain to others.  Without people plainly seeing and experiencing Christ through His people, why are we here?  Our desire for Christ is essential to showing others Christ, which is what He’s called us to.  Then all of our desires will be from Him and fulfilled by Him.

Desiring Christ,

Bruce