The Need for Desire
Desire can be your best friend or your worst enemy. When you have the desire to achieve something of value, you have a reason to get up in the morning and accomplish worthy things. Positive desire is the inner force that energizes you to pursue a noble cause and to persist with enthusiasm in a given task until it’s finished.
We are not machines that have no heart or feelings. While machines often have great power and can accomplish phenomenal tasks, they need to be turned on before they begin to work. It doesn’t matter how big or powerful the machine is, if it never gets turned on, it’s just wasted potential that never did anything when it could have done great things. There is no manual switch that will turn a human being on like a computer or a robot. What turns us on and makes us go is an inner quality called desire. With it, great potential is released. Without it, you can have all the ability and potential in the world, but it will go to waste. You need desire.
I believe that desire is something that people are born with, but it can erode away and dissipate through difficult experiences and harmful perspectives. Most of us at least have enough desire to eat, drink, and survive. Many of us also have enough desire to work when we have to, but few have the desire to work hard enough to maximize their abilities.
Desire Must be Nurtured
Desire is not something that is automatic, rather, it tends to flourish when it is nurtured and dissipate when it is denied. If you want to have desire, you must be clear on what that desire is and see it as something that you can have. Most of the time, there must be more to desire than just receiving an end product from your work. It’s also important to have the desire to perform the components of the process. You must learn to enjoy learning, trying, working, and being challenged in order to make the most of yourself.
People who have positive desire in the midst of difficult challenges are able to maintain that desire by focusing on the positive things that others don’t see in those same circumstances. They see challenge as good, not bad. They look past the pain and see opportunities to learn and improve. Having desire means you must be on a frequency that keeps you tuned into the positives instead of the negatives, because there will be negatives consisting of failure, rejection, delay, road blocks, and detours in almost any pursuit that is worth anything of value. But even in the midst of those negatives, you can find adventure, opportunity, possibility, progress, and growth if you look for it.
Taking Your Desires Before God
People in the bible had desires and they brought them before God to help fulfill those desires. Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Anna, and Elizabeth, all wanted children but found themselves barren. They took their desires to God and he brought what they desired to pass. Without desire, Abraham would have never gone into the Promised Land, and Moses would have never led the people out of Egypt; Joshua and the Israelites would have never possessed the Promised Land; and David would have never fought a giant. The desires of all these people were severely tested, but their desires held out and with God’s help, they were able to possess what they desired.
Righteous desire is a gift from God. Without it you will become passive, purposeless and unproductive. We are often afraid of desires because they are so often disappointed. Disappointments are a part of life, and they may cause desires to wane, but God has a way of breathing life into our hearts and reigniting desire to help us accomplish his will for our lives.
Is God Your Greatest Desire?
Desires Can Lead to Disaappointment
As great as desires are for helping us to accomplish important things in our lives, they can backfire if they are not based on proper priorities and values. God meant for some desires to be greater than others. Much of what we desire in this world will end in disappointment, but there are some desires that God wants us to have that are based on certainties that will not end in disappointment.
King David certainly had desires. He wanted to serve King Saul, but there came a time when Saul rejected him out of jealousy. David wanted a home and a safe dwelling place, but for many years his life, he was at risk as he was chased through the wilderness. No doubt David wanted his new born son who was born to Bathsheba to live, but he died. David wanted what was good for all of his sons, but one of them was murdered and another rebelled against David and wouldn’t have hesitated to kill David while trying to take over his kingdom. All of these things were heart breaking events in David’s life. While God did fulfill many of the desires that David had, David knew what it was to suffer loss and disappointment. His desires were often crushed, but the way he prioritized his desires helped him survive his most devastating losses while maintaining hope.
The Main Desire to Focus on
David knew all of his desires were subject to heartbreak except for one. In Psalms 27:4 David prays, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” When it comes to desire, David wants one thing more than any other, which is to be with God where he can gaze upon his beauty. This is one desire that will never end in disappointment.
Asaph who was another Psalmist. He writes in Palm 73, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Asaph knows the strength of his heart must be his desire for God, not earthly things. God often grants the desires of our hearts, but everything on earth is subject to rust, decay, destruction, and disappointment (Matthew 6:19). As great as it is when our desires are granted, the root desire of all other desires must be unshakeable if our hearts are to remain strong, and the only unshakeable desire is for God himself and his promise for us to be with him for eternity (Matthew 6:20).
God himself has desires and he has access to anything in the universe; it’s all his. Out of all the things God could have or want, his greatest desire is for you and I. God considers that we are worth dying for in order that he can have fellowship with us and spend eternity with us. He desires that we desire him in the same way. While he wants us to have desires in this life, he doesn’t want us to be crushed by them. He wants us to be blessed by them, and the only way for that to happen is for our greatest desire to never be threatened, and it won’t be if our greatest desire is for him.
Desires That Work for You Not Against You
God’s intention is that a person’s desires work together in a harmonious way that is beneficial. When desires don’t work correctly, they are either over-active, or under-active. An underactive desire is destructive because it usually results in inactivity and lack of productivity. Without productivity, nothing good gets accomplished and everything begins to deteriorate, degenerate and fall apart. On the other hand too much desire can be just as destructive. Too much desire causes obsession of one or more desires to the exclusion of other desires that are also important.
One of the easiest examples to understand in regard to an essential desire that becomes harmful when it is over-active or under-active is the desire to eat. Without the desire to eat enough, people would become malnourished or starve. On the other hand, too much desire for food results in over eating which can cause excessive weight gain, health problems, and a reduction in the quality of life. In order for a desire to be beneficial, it must be awakened to operate at the right time and be at rest when it has served its God intended purpose. This doesn’t just apply to food, it applies to just about anything where desires are involved.
Desires Can Serve You or Rule Over You
God has always intended that desires be your best friend instead of your worst enemy. Desires were meant to serve you and to motivate you to take action so that you can serve God and others. You were never meant to be a servant to your desires to the point where they control you so much that you can’t say no to them and make healthy decisions. Healthy decisions are based on having values that are prioritized correctly. When your desires are in alignment with values that are prioritized correctly, then your desires are working for your good. If your desires are fighting against values that are prioritized correctly, then they are working against you and they can push you to compromise your values.
Desires create feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions can easily become the basis for forming a belief system that determines decision making. I know people who think that smoking and drug abuse is harmless because that’s what they want to believe, and I know people who think that you can live any life style you want to and it won’t affect your health and life span. These people want to believe that health and life span are simply a matter of genetics apart from anything else that may affect their health. I know people who once believed in God but decided to live a sinful life and found it easier to become an atheist rather than to believe in a God who disapproves of what they are doing. When desires and feelings become too strong, emotional decisions often trump intelligent-rational decisions. This is the reason we must depend upon God’s power at work in our hearts to bring our desires into alignment with his values.
Dealing with Unhealthy Desire
What can be done about desires that begin to dominate us in an unhealthy manner? The Apostle Paul discusses this in Romans 7:18-20 which says, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Paul’s values are telling him to do the right thing, and he wants to do that right thing, but his inner desires, drives, and emotions, are urging him to do the wrong thing. This is a human problem that we often face apart from God’s intervention.
You can cope with feelings, emotions, urges and desires by learning to control them to a certain degree. It often requires looking to another person for accountability and constantly reminding yourself about consequences. The sin nature has desires that can be controlled if the right restraining conditions are present, but it’s possible to control your sinful passions and say no to acting on them for a time, even though they are fully alive and begging to be satisfied the whole time you are saying no.
God’s never meant for man to have desires that are saying one thing while his values are saying another. This only creates inner conflict and dissatisfaction. Instead, God’s wants to give you a heart that has values and desires that are in agreement with each other. If this is what God wants, does he have a method for accomplishing this in his people? If so, what is his method?
God’s Solution to Unhealthy Desires
God’s method for giving us a heart that has desires and values are in agreement is to have us recognize the work of the Holy Spirit who has the power to minister the cross and resurrection of Jesus into our hearts. The Holy Spirit crucifies our sin nature by uniting it with the death of Jesus in order to take desires that are out of control and put them to death. He then ministers his resurrection life to us to impart the same nature that Jesus has into our hearts in order to give us a new heart with Godly desires. This is a work that is given to us through faith as we learn to look to Jesus and trust him to work his nature and power into our hearts.
Our faith in Christ does not always grant us a one-time experience that causes our hearts to have values and desires that line up. More often, it is a continuous dependence on the Holy Spirit as we keep looking to Jesus day by day. The constant exercising of our faith in this area is what gives us victory over worldly desires that hurt us instead of help us. 1 John 5:4 verifies this as it declares, “…This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
The New Covenant Grants a New Heart
When God fills our hearts, he wants to fill it with hope and with positive desires; desires that motivate us, energize us, and fill us with joy as we engage in them. God wants those desires to be appropriate, beneficial, purposeful, and healthy, but this doesn’t always happen by sitting down and making out a list of prioritized values that we should follow. Those prioritized values must be written on our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit who imparts God’s nature into our hearts. This is God’s plan according to his New Covenant ways that we know as the New Testament.
Hebrews 10:16 declares, “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” These verses give us God’s solution to dealing with desires in a manner that will make them work on our behalf, the solution being a new heart that he puts within us.
Temptation
It may seem as though the bible is teaching that God wants to give each person a new heart so there will never be any wrong desires that creep in ever again, but the bible also warns Christians about temptation. Temptation is the desire to do something wrong and the possibility for temptation will always be there. The good news is that God will always be there to help us overcome it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” God is faithful to help us to overcome temptation and stand up under it, but we must also go to him for help.
Drawing Near to God
The bible teaches that we must humble ourselves and remain dependent upon God’s power and strength to remain true to him with Godly desires. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us to run to God’s throne of grace when we are tempted and that he will help us. It reads, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are —yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
God’s ultimate way for giving us a heart that has his divine nature flowing through it is for us to remain in him instead of flowing in and out of fellowship with him. John 15:4 says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” One of the aspects of fruit that Jesus is talking about is to show forth Godly character that flows out of a heart that is in constant fellowship with him. James 4:7-8 reemphasizes this saying, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.” Exercising your faith to remain in close fellowship with him is one way that temptation is reduced. We may still be tempted, but when we are close to God, we can quickly take that temptation before God and overcome it.
Choosing the Right People to Fellowship With
Overcoming wrong desires is easier when we have God’s help and when we have the support and help of other likeminded Christians who are strong and steadfast in their walk with God. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Along with overcoming temptation by having the support of likeminded people, it is important to cut off intimate friendship with people who are headed in the wrong direction if they want to take you with them. The book of Proverbs warns of getting in with the wrong crowd and going along with them, and Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character.” Part of overcoming temptation is fleeing from it by avoiding the wrong people and drawing close to people who want to go in the right direction and take you with them.
Confessing Sins Helps us to Overcome Wrong Desires
Overcoming desires that have gone too far starts with recognizing that those desires are out of wack and are hurting us. They miss the mark of God’s intention to move us towards pursuits that bless us. Desires that are off target with God’s intention for them is what leads to sin. Confessing sin to God and others is one of God ways to help us overcome sinful desires. The bible says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We are also told in James 5:15 to confess our sins to others that we can trust who can help us to overcome. This verse says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
The bottom line in overcoming temptation is first to draw close to God and to draw close to people who will help you stay close to God and live in a righteous manner. The second thing is to overcome temptation by resisting it, avoiding it, and avoiding the people who draw you into temptation.
Over Legislating What you Can and Can’t Desire
Since desires often get us into trouble, a common way to deal with them is to attempt to legislate a life style that keeps people from overindulging their desires. When it comes to biblical morals that clearly tells us right from wrong, having laws is a good idea. There are things that are wrong and will always be wrong regardless of the circumstances. This is why God made Ten Commandments that tell us not to worship other Gods, not to murder, not to commit adultery or sexual sins, and so on. These things are just plain wrong.
There are other behaviors that stem from desires that can be good, but when the desires are out of control, they become bad. Eating, working, resting, exercise, and leisure; these are all examples of thing that are good when they are driven by a healthy set of desires that are based on the right values and priorities. However, all of those good things can become bad when the desire for them gets out of control. Suddenly a good thing like eating becomes bad and leads to health problems. It’s possible to have too much desire and over-work, over-rest, over-exercise, and spend too much time at leisure activities. There is nothing wrong with the activities themselves, but too much desire or not enough desire can sabotage something that God intended to be good.
Be Careful About Condemning What God Created to be Good
When an imbalance of desire causes good things to turn into something bad, it’s easy to conclude that something that God intended to be good is what created the problem, when the real problem is that out of control desires caused the misuse of a good thing. When this happens, good things are often overly restricted, or eliminated in order to solve the problem. Sometimes this is necessary because behavior can become out of control when desires are out of control. Both society and religion often do this in order to govern behavior, but this can go too far as well.
It’s possible that you have been part of a religion, or denomination, or organizational system within the world that has attempted to greatly restrict or eliminate areas of life by calling them wrong. These may be things that God never intended to be thought of as wrong when practiced in a healthy manner. You may be conditioned to think there are desires to be involved in things that are bad that God never called bad. As a result, you disciplined yourself to ignore a desire to do something that God actually created you to do.
Some examples of things that have been chastised as worldly and evil by well-meaning people who love God are politics, law, business, sports, dancing, music, the arts, entertainment, and public education. Much of this comes from seeing the corruption that invaded these areas of life when they became dominated by people with wrong desires towards them. There have also been many wholesome people who have participated in these segments of life that that were surrounded by people of corrupt desires, causing them to fall prey to the worldly mindset that surrounded them. This gave Godly people the impression that these areas of life were bad in and of themselves.
The Risk of An Ungodly Takeover
The warning to holy minded people is to be careful not to fall into an unbiblical mindset where all of these areas of life are considered wrong and that they should be completely avoided by Christians. A danger occurs when Godly people are counseled to avoid these areas of life. The problem is that it will eliminate any hope for people of Godly influence to take part in these important areas to our society. The result is that the areas of life which influence our society are left vacant for a take-over by ungodly people.
In the mind of a person of great religious zeal, it may seem like a good idea to abstain from any areas of life where evil people are trying to exert their influence. However, these are often the same areas of life that God wants to be carried out in a righteous way for the benefit of our world. This is part of what it means to go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of the nations, and to do everything that we do as unto the Lord.
Remember that Israel had a government which means it had a political system. Some of the kings in the government were good, and some were bad, but God never said being a king is bad or it wouldn’t be ok for Jesus to be King of kings. Israel had warriors, judges, biblical business policies, plus God assigned musicians, artists, craftsmen, and builders for the tabernacle and temple. While many people use all those things for evil purposes, God assigned the Israelites to use them for Godly purposes. If you are afraid of your desire to take part in these things, and it causes you to fail to develop your abilities, they never get released as treasures that will benefit the world in a Godly manner, but God wants the treasures within you to be uncovered.
If I could recommend a source of teaching for the need to have Christians invade all sectors of our culture and society, it would be Lance Wallnau and the 7 Mountain Mandate. He will bring great clarity and relevance to this issue.
Follow Your Heart
In order to have a treasure such as a talent, gift or ability be uncovered, it must be fully developed or it will just be seen as common instead of a treasure. It won’t be developed without plenty of drive and desire. If God has put a desire in your heart to excel at something that people among you are calling evil and worldly, but the bible doesn’t call it that, then you may need to retrain your mind and emotions in order to fully engage in something that others perceive to be questionable or even evil. If not, your desire will be in constant conflict with what others think is wrong or unworthy, which will tend to suppress your desires so that you never pursue anything to the degree where you can develop and excel.
How many potential politicians, layers, businessmen, athletes, artists, musicians, entertainers, architects, builders, mechanics, doctors, educators, and other jobs, tasks, and causes that people may have wanted to pursue have been aborted because people thought they were pursuing an unworthy cause that served no Godly purpose. While it’s true that the world may pursue these things based on an unworthy purpose, that doesn’t mean that a Christian has to pursue those same things with an unworthy purpose. You can stand out as a light in the darkness and do these things with Godly character and Godly values that are born out of love for God and for others.
The Earth will be Full of the Knowledge of the Lord
God wants the knowledge of himself to cover the whole earth. Isaiah 11:9 says, “….for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This can only happen if every area of life is done from a Christian perspective. The only way that all of life will be lived from a Christian perspective is if Christians inhabit each area of life and pursue everything they do with a Godly perspective.
It’s not always religion that inhibits people from following a desire within their heart, causing it to remain hidden. You may have a calling to a specific role within ministry such as a missionary, evangelist, pastor, bible teacher, minister to children, or ministry to the poor and hungry, yet there are people within your circle of relationships that look down upon these ministries. There may not be enough money or prestige in it, or there may some bias that someone has that causes them to oppose your desire to pursue a specific ministry, or maybe you have a past that you or others think disqualifies you. Just remember, God formed your heart and put those desires in you for a reason. It is God you are serving, not man.
If you have a desire in your heart, it’s part of God’s method of providing the drive that you will need in order to develop your abilities and talents into a treasure, but it will only happen if you allow yourself to follow that desire without the constrains and limitations that others either consciously or unconsciously try to impose on you.
Examining the Health of your Desires in Relationship to God
Read the scenarios about desires, interests and relationships. Ask yourself if the scenario is a reflection of what a healthy relationship should be like, or more representative of what an unhealthy relationship tends to be like. Then reflect upon the questions that follow the scenarios to add to your awareness of whether or not your desires are helping you to relate to God in a healthy way, or an unhealthy way.
Scenario 1
Imagine sharing your desires with someone else and they listen intently showing great interest in everything you say. You realize that both of you have something in common and the conversation between the two of you seems to inflame your desires even more. As you continue to meet with this person and develop a common bond with them, the relationship grows and you realize it’s more important to you than the desires and interests that first brought you together with them.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
Do you think that God shares in the interests and desires that you have in life? If yes, does this enhance the desire or take away from it? Does God’s care, concern, in your interests and desires promote a relational bond that surpasses the value of the desires of your heart that you share with him?
Scenario 2
When two people share a common interest and a common desire, it has the potential to bring them into relationship with each other. Even more significant is that two people who love each other may take an interest in the each other’s interests including interests that they don’t necessarily have in common. For example, if Bruce enjoys football, and Janet loves Bruce, she may take an interest in football because she loves Bruce enough want to have something in common with him. At the same time, if Janet enjoys going to the symphony, and Bruce loves Janet, then Bruce may take an interest in the symphony because he loves Janet and wants to share something in common with her.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
Do you love God enough to want to find out what he desires, or is it unimportant to you? Do you think God loves you enough to care about your desires, or is it unimportant to him?
Scenario 3
Suppose that Bob and Sue are in a serious romantic relationship with each other. When Bob has an interest, he wants Sue to be interested in it as well. When Sue has an interest, Bob becomes very threatened by it because he wants Sue’s to only be interested in him. If Sue talks to Bob with any passion about something that she enjoys besides her love for Bob, then Bob is jealous. He thinks that Sue is double minded and uncommitted if she thinks about anything that’s interesting to her besides him. Sue loves Bob, but she is still interested in other things and she wishes that she and Bob could be interested in them together. The way it is now, in order for Sue to maintain a relationship with Bob, she must refuse to acknowledge that she has any desires other than to love Bob, or the relationship will be strained and she will be considered unfaithful and unworthy of having true love for him.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
Do you love God greatly and believe that God becomes jealous when you enjoy activities, possessions and relationships that aren’t specifically of a religious orientation? Do the desires you have in life feel threatening to you because they may pull you away from being fully committed to God? Do you feel as though you can have God, or you can have desires, but you can’t have both because you desires can never work together with your love for God to enhance one another? Does loving God more than anything mean that you can’t love or enjoy any activities, possessions, or close relationships but him?
Scenario 4
Todd is deeply in love with Samantha and wants to take an interest in the interests and desires that Samantha has. Unfortunately, Samantha is more interested in her own interests than she is in Todd. On the occasions where Todd is able to engage with Samantha in one of her interests, it’s almost as though Todd doesn’t exist within Samantha’s awareness. In fact, she ignores Todd and treats him like he’s not there and not important because she is preoccupied with all of her desires and interests.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
It seems that Samantha’s interests are not working to bring a bond between her and Todd, rather, they are acting as a wedge that will drive the relationship apart. Do you ignore God in favor directing your affection towards things that you desire and want?
Scenario 5
One of Greg’s favorite people in the world was his grandpa. He especially loved to go fishing with his grandpa. His grandpa taught him the right bait to use for different fish, where the fish were most likely to be, and how to cast his fishing line to the right place. Anytime Greg needed advice or help with his fishing, his grandpa would help him. Greg’s grandpa had a generous heart and bought a fishing rod for him along with all of the fishing supplies that he needed to be successful. Not only that, he loved being with his grandpa because of his positive, encouraging attitude, and kind hearted spirit. This made Greg admire his grandpa more than anyone else and caused him to want to be with him whether they were fishing or doing anything else. He loved his grandpa so much he often found himself looking for ways to do things that would make his grandpa happy.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
Are your affections drawn towards God because you believe that he is good and that good things come from him? If so, does it cause you to want to do things for him that you know would please him?
Scenario 6
John’s grandma loved John and always had chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven when she knew that he was coming over. John was usually in hurry. He would help himself to the cookies and then run out the door to get the motor cycle that his grandparents got for him, and he would find a field where he could ride it on his grandparent’s country property. What John really desired was the motorcycle and a place to ride it on his grandparent’s land, but one thing he didn’t like was having to spend any social time with his grandparents, they were older and he just didn’t relate. Truthfully, he wished they would get a better motorcycle for him as he thought his current motor cycle didn’t accelerate the way he wished it would. But what would his grandparents know about that? They didn’t ride motorcycles. When John was finished riding his motor cycle, he would sneak off and leave before his grandparents would take up his time by asking how he was doing and chatting with him for a while.
Does this reflect a healthy relationship or an unhealthy relationship?
Thought Questions
Do you find it a nuisance to allow God to know you and be interested in your life beyond the needs and desires he can provide for you? Does he provide for you, but then get in the way of letting you use the things he provides in the way you would like?
Evaluating Your Desires
When it comes to desires and the way they affect your relationship with God, you may find that you fit into one of the scenarios that were just described. You may feel as though all your interests, desires, activities, and relationships are a part of your relationship with God; that it is common ground between you and God and as you share in these things together with him, it brings you closer to him than ever. You may also feel as though you love him and he loves you, and you want to love what he loves, so you make a deliberate effort to find out what God loves so that you can share with him in it. These are examples of desires working in a complementary way to enhance your relationship with God.
Compartmentalization
Some people tend to classify their interests and desires into different compartments that effect their relationship with God. They have interests and desires that go into the Godly compartment which brings them close to God. They have other interests and desires that are not specifically bad or sinful, but they don’t bring you any closer to God, and if you really enjoy them, then they can steal you desires away from God, so you shouldn’t like these things very much. You can do them, but not with any passion or real joy, and not with any real dedication. Then there are desires and interests that go into the sinful compartment, these are the desires that should never be done, as they are sinful according to the bible,
The ultra-religious are often afraid of passions, desires, and strong interests that can be pursued to the point of excellence. This would surely be an idol and God would be jealous as the only real desire we should have is for him, so desires and interests are constantly suppressed with the belief that if it’s not prayer, bible study, evangelism, or serving the poor, that it’s evil. Others may have the same strong desires and interests but believe that God is the source of all good things that they desire which causes them to be closely drawn to him in the midst of doing what they desire.
Balance
Unfortunately, desires truly can take over and rule our affections to the point where we ignore God and see him as a nuisance that interferes with our focus on other desires. Until we see that desires are both necessary in order to be productive, but they are dangerous when they rule over our lives and eclipse our love for God, then we will be at risk of being out of balance with two extremes consisting of a hopeless, non-enjoyable, nonproductive lifestyle that suppresses desires, or a lifestyle filled with greed, lust, and overindulgence from out of control desires. What God wants is a balance where desires operate at the right time for the right purpose in a beneficial manner.
Bridging the Natural with the Spiritual
When speaking of desires, it is important to understand that the natural world was never meant by God to be evil or bad. All of his creation was given to testify to his goodness and continuously remind us of him. If you read Psalm 148, you will find the psalmist is listing everything that comes into his mind that God created as things that praise the Lord.
Some people believe that we are to hate anything in the world that consists of matter because it can distract us from God. This probably comes from 1 John 2:15-16, which speaks of refraining from the love of the world. In the context that John is referring to, the love of the world consists of the pride of life, the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. This refers to our unredeemed sin nature which draws us to things rather than God. God wants to fill us with his Sprit and let us experience the intention of his heart in which all of life was given as a blessing. In God’s mind, encountering the things of the natural world was intended to glorify him and elicit a praise response within us that would draw us even closer to him.
Not only was God’s creation designed to draw us to him, the natural, everyday things of life that we commonly do were designed to be for his glory. Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do , whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” When we are in a spiritual state, God is not diminished by the things of life, but he is glorified and magnified through them.
Jesus is Our Example
If we consider the life of Jesus, we can see that he is in all kinds of settings, even in settings that other people thought were evil. The religious people would find him in questionable places with questionable people at times. The key was that Jesus was not in a worldly state that made him ineffective in bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. Instead, Jesus was in a spiritual state where the kingdom of heaven filled his heart and flowed out from him into the world. The result was that people were loved, taught, redirected to righteousness, healed, set free from sin, forgiven, and brought closer to God.
Jesus is a picture of what life looks like when a person walks in the Spirit. Let us review some specific directives that the Bible gives us that will help us to live by the Spirit of God. We have already discussed turning to Jesus and asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit. This first step gives us the initial impartation of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, but we must then continue to look to Jesus rather than the things of the world to produce the love, joy and peace that God promises.
Looking to God in All Areas of Life
Looking to Jesus is something that occurs even as we live our day-to-day lives and recognize that creation was designed to glorify God and not itself. As we encounter this world, our attention is to be drawn to God and glorify him as the creator of the world we are privileged to behold.
While we are living our daily lives in this world, the Apostle Paul gives two specifics that turn our hearts towards God. The first thing he tells us is to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. This means our intention should be to do what we do in a way that represents Jesus and all that he stands for while we are doing it. The second part is to give thanks to God the Father through Jesus all the while we are doing what we are doing. If we do these things, we begin to move into the spiritual realm and live in the spiritual state that Jesus wants us to live in while encountering the world.
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