Have you ever desired something but felt that if you didn’t make it happen it wouldn’t?
Or what about something you felt a desperate need for, but attaining it would require certain other things outside of your control to happen first?
Did you find a justification for acting without waiting?
Patterns of desire and control run through the Bible starting right at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Unfortunately… on our own, we aren’t any better at handling that pattern than Adam and Eve were.
Not only did they fail to trust God, but they also didn’t have any understanding of how far-reaching the consequences of their actions would be on humanity.
I believe we share that blind spot.
Who knows who all has been impacted by our choices and how?
Contents
The Delusion of Self-Attained Blessing and Fulfillment
God addressed this problem throughout the Bible. Consider Cain, Joseph’s brothers, Abraham, Jacob, David, and many others who attempted to gain blessing for themselves or tried to fulfill desires apart from Our Father.
Gods promises say,
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Despite these promises, we struggle with trusting God enough to wait on Him.
1st Corinthians 13:3 teaches there is no gain without love, yet somehow, we are deluded into believing it is possible. We can check our hearts by asking if our thoughts and actions are being led by love.
When Cain killed Abel, or Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, where was love?
During Abraham or Jacob’s deceitfulness, where was love?
Throughout David’s course of action with Bathsheba and Uriah, where was love?
In each case, the result of their intense, self-focused desires was futility and lack of fulfillment.
Instead, there were heartache, fear, and guilt. Imagine how different their stories and even history might have been if they trusted the love of God for their blessing!
Nothing About Us Exists in Isolation
Where do we turn then to gain blessing and fulfillment if not to God? Ourselves?
No, we lack the means.
Where then? To other people? Perhaps, but without love leading the way, our capacity to take from others individually or collectively at any cost is terrifying.
People, unlike God, are vulnerable to all manner of physical, emotional, and spiritual harm, and we can leave devastation behind us in our self-absorbed pursuits.
Isolation Leads to Seeking Fulfillment in Other Places
In the Bible, God likens people who turn away from Him to seek fulfillment elsewhere to briars. Briars inflict pain on multiple levels.
Bible references: Micah 7:1-7 and Matt 13:7
What is known about briars in the natural world paints a frightening picture when you consider the comparison to the human heart.
Anyone who encounters briars not only is at risk of the intense pain from punctures and cuts, but also dangerous infections caused by the accompanying decay often found on them.
Sporothrix is a toxic fungus that gets in through the cut and causes topical infection. If left untreated it can spread deep throughout the body to the bones or the central nervous system.
Isolation Causes Us Pain
The choice to reject God and His blessing is one that leads to a destructive and dangerous existence.
These scriptures declare a destructive end for those who do not repent,
Surely wickedness burns like a fire;
it consumes briers and thorns,
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.
The Light of Israel will become a fire,
their Holy One a flame;
in a single day it will burn and consume
his thorns and his briers.
God won’t have this kind of pain and harm in His garden.
There will instead be those who have been transformed through repentance (Isaiah 27:4-6) and a replacement of briars with the complete blessing of God. (Isaiah 55).
Seeking blessing and fulfilment apart from God is not only futile, but harms others in the process…
So, What Do We Do?
We must endeavor to deliberately and faithfully rely on God for everything — especially for blessing and fulfilment regardless of the circumstances.
It is SO easy to take our eyes off of God when we perceive an urgent or desperate need or strong desires for something.
Instead, we need to make every effort to align the inclination of our heart in order to love what He loves and desire what He desires.
Romans 13:8-10 exhorts us to continuously love, bringing no harm to others. In this way fulfill the instruction that started back in the garden at the tree.
The Good News!
We didn’t listen back in the garden on how to handle desire, but by grace through Jesus, the Holy Spirit enables us to listen now, with eternal blessing and fulfillment.
