Desire

What is it that you desire?  What is it that you are passionate about?  Take a mental moment and think in your head about what you most want.......    Do you have it?  How many of you thought about a job or career goal?  How many thought about some sort of personal achievement, such as completing a marathon, or mastering the guitar?   How many thought about that nest-egg for retirement, or your children's college education?  Perhaps it getting into a position of leadership?  What we desire and aspire tells us a lot about our state of being and who we are.


It is our desires and passions that drive us.  We often do what we do so that we may move toward attaining what is is we want.  We build relationships with people who will help us further along towards our goals.  We make choices of attire, change our look, move to certain neighborhoods, drive certain types of cars, etc etc, just so that we can fit in and move ourselves closer toward that goal we have our eyes upon.


For many people, that ultimate goal must be obtained at all cost.  People will turn on thier friends and family, lie about a coworker, steal someone elses ideas and claim it for their own.  They will lay traps and snares to catch their competition off guard and destroy their reputation, and besmirch them just so you can advance towards your end.  You want what they have and you will do whatever it takes to get it, even at the expense of others.


Most of the things that people desire are just temporary.  Even when they get to where they think they want to be or achieve what they wanted, they still find emptiness and therefore are driven to keep on pushing and pushing for the next thing and the next thing.  No amount of money ever seems to satisfy, no amount of possessions ever seems to quiet the hunger; no amount of subjects ever satisfies the lust for power. 


I don't think that many people even realize they are doing this.  We've been raised to think that we are just evolved animals that need to look out for number one in a dog eat dog survival of the fittest struggle to pass on the best genes to the next generation as we grow ever closer to a utopia that we will never see as we die and become part of an empty nothingness to be long forgotten except for some sort of legacy we can leave behind to future generations.  It is sad and pitiful.
 

All is vanity.  We may never reach those goals we have, and when we do, they can be stolen away by others, crumble away due to some unforeseen circumstance.  Our life can be cut short before ever reaching the plateau we were ascending to.  Our schemes can backfire and we lose all that we worked towards and put our hopes in.  Why put our trust in things that are so unstable and that will pass away?  Why do we waste our energies on efforts that over time will not matter at all and will pass away into forgetfulness.


Oh what a sad state we humans find ourselves in running to and fro, working and striving for things that in an instant will be gone, putting our trust and hope in activities that lead us to nowhere.  There is nothing in this world that we can take with us when we leave it.  We have no real control over who takes over what we have achieved and what they do with it, nor will we really care.  We will have passed on.


In Luke 12, Jesus is with some folks and is asked by a man to convince his brother to divide his inheritance with him.  Jesus replied, Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?  Then he makes a profound and life changing statement if people understand it. (v15) Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.


Remember the desires we thought about at the beginning?  For most, what came to mind Jesus said is not life.  The cars, jobs, achievements, wealth, houses, trophy spouses, contacts, power, whatever, are not what life is about.


Jesus illustrates this point with a parable beginning in v16  "And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”


"rich towards God".....


That is the key, isn't it?  In Mathew 19, Jesus puts it this way, 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 


The reason that earthly desires never satisfy is because we were designed to please God, not ourselves.  We try to fill that void with things that will never satisfy that desire.  The only way we will ever find true peace, happiness, fulfillment is when we make our desires match Gods desires.  It is when we love God and our neighbors as ourselves that we find true life.  When we understand that all these temporary things are not ours, but are Gods for us to use for His purpose and not our own, our lives are transformed from the slavery of always striving to achieve to the freedom of knowing that God has already achieved what we most want for us through His son Jesus Christ; the forgiveness of sin and being made right with the Father and given the Holy Spirit by which we are refreshed and renewed and given a new view of life that is on an eternal scale, rather than a temporary one.


Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  When we do delight in the Lord, He gives us what to desire, and fulfills it.  And God may love us so much that He may also allow us to enjoy some of those other earthly desires we have, knowing that we will use them for His glory and not our own.


If you have been down this road of constantly striving to achieve things, and finding yourself constantly unsatisfied and frustrated, why not try a different way?  Let someone else do all of the effort and striving.  Give the reins of your life over to Jesus Christ.  Let your desire and goal to be to better understand The Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus made a promise to those who do this.  He said in Matthew 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."