Do You Know Your Heart’s Desire?
This past Sunday, in addition to rolling out more widely the information about Avoiding Scams, we went over Paul’s image of the Armor of God, in part, as a way to avoid getting ourselves sidetracked, stuck or… well, scammed by something or someone. At the close of the message, and the service, I doubled down on the fact that we can’t be certain of not making mistakes, of not falling into a trap or getting caught in a scheme. But we can help others, by telling our stories, by being honest about how we’ve gotten sideways, to trust ourselves to God, who will help us stand up, in the end. When we share how we’ve gotten trapped, scammed, schemed, whatever, we help others learn from us and avoid the same pitfalls.
I continue encouraging you to tell your stories, big and small. Tell people what God has done for you, despite your mistakes – God’s redemptive work in your life is one of the best gifts you can give to others. It’s also your witness – and you’re the only one who can tell your story!
I also wanted to go back to the very first point I made Sunday – the groundwork that sets the stage for everything that comes after it. Cultivating an Awareness of God, Ourselves and Our World.
More specifically, one of the best things we can do to grow… is to cultivate the awareness of ourselves, by discovering and being honest about how we feel and what we desire.
When Jesus confronts two blind men by the roadside, as he leaves Jericho, Jesus asks him a strange question – “What do you want me to do for you?” You’d think it was obvious. Yet, Jesus gives them the opportunity to clearly articulate it. Jesus doesn’t downplay or shame or brush them off. It’s actually, only after they make their request clear, that Jesus heals them.
I believe the same is true for us. It’s not a guarantee that we will be healed, or given exactly what we want, just because we’ve made the request. But, unless we’re aware of what our desires are, and until we can clearly articulate them, to ourselves and to God, we’re going to have trouble.
Jesus does say that if we ask, we will receive, if we knock, the door gets opened, if we seek, we will find… because God is a Gracious Father and loves giving us good gifts! Which in turn, means that if we ask for something short of, or besides, or instead of what we really want… well, we won’t be satisfied even if we get it.
I think it takes work, on our parts, to truly discover and understand our heart’s desires. But the first step is to honestly lift up to God what we think we want. When we do this with open hands and hearts, allowing God to sift through what we bring, we can also discover, through our prayers and searching, what is really at the heart. Like panning for gold. Sometimes we think we have it, but when we test it out, we realize – naw, that’s not what I really wanted.
The other key part of this, is that if we’re never honest with ourselves, if we’re not really sure about what we want, deep in our hearts, we’ll find ourselves being drawn away… and falling for something that’s less than God’s best, and truly less than what fulfills. We send money to the Foreign Prince, or click on that link because we think we’re trying to be helpful, or we’re just curious… but what we really want is to be loved and have intimacy with others – we’re lonely.
If we don’t know our deepest heart’s longing, if we’ve never honestly offered it up to God, we can be driven by these unspoken desires into all kinds of… less than God’s best for us.
So, in addition to having courage to share our stories of how God has lifted us back up after failing or falling or getting scammed in some way, I want to encourage you to have the courage to go to God with your heart’s desires. If you know them, just be bold enough to offer them up in prayer to God, like Jesus did in the Garden. If you don’t know them, ask God to show you what your desires are – talk with trusted friends, pay attention to how you spend your money and your time and ask the heard questions about what might be underneath that, that you’re searching for.
Our desires are not necessarily good or bad. I tend to think that God has implanted good desires in our hearts that God wants us to pursue. But only if they are truly surrendered and truly discovered, can we seek them faithfully. Because our desires can also be the gateway that leads us astray, that leads us to fall prey to schemes and scams and all manner of messed up circumstances.
Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus as we discover, offer and surrender our desires to Him,
Pastor Don