Great Desire

‎Saturday, ‎July ‎17, ‎2021

Good Morning, Lord

Verse of the Day:  Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Memory of the month:  Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be  satisfied.

Today's reading: PSALM 18-19 ACTS 20:17-38

The Right Desire….

Psalm 40:8- I desire to do your will, my God;

your law is within my heart.

This scripture should be a destination for all of us. How do we arrive at a place where we want to do God’s will? How do we get to a place where we realize we do not have to wait for God's Spirit to move in us-He is moving all the time-He is alive and vibrant? We must wait on His moving Spirit to take us and move?

When do we get up one morning and realize that our love for God is with all our hearts, souls, and minds? The answer waits in God’s heart.

That is so frustrating--another answer from a preacher that is ‘mud’ vague and ethereal. Why can’t someone just answer the question?

If it was easy, Jesus would not have had to die. I fought with the idea of sin being so offensive to God that it demanded blood. Why should it be so? I fought with the idea of God having to give up His son on my account. Really-come on-if I had been the only one, Christ would have still died? Yes. God did that for me? Yes. God did that for all of us? Yes.

So, God did all this and much more and I am supposed to give up my heart and life and follow Him and my heart will be filled with desire to serve him and patience to wait on Him-just like that? It takes so much. But when we give our hearts to Christ, it is like no other commitment. God lets us live and love and function in a world full of sin and gives us His laws written in our hearts. His Holy Spirit is here every minute to fill our hearts and keep our minds occupied as we learn to live by faith and not by sight.

So do you desire to do God’s will with all your heart? Maybe not, but, the prayer for this desire must always be ours and that is where we must live. We must know that God will take the desire that He has planted in our hearts and grow it into what He intends for it to be.

It sounds as if I am talking in circles and I am---God saves us because of sin….we serve because we are saved. We desire when we seek God with our whole hearts and that desire becomes a fire because we seek with our whole heart.

God will never dessert you—no matter how tough it gets or no matter how discouraged you get. Sometimes we try to pray and there seems to be just nothing...we must trust that 'this' is always on 'our' side-God never leaves us. When we think God does not hear us, our mood or sin or chemicals in our brain or whatever keeps us from 'hearing Him'...this is when we stop and rest quietly in His promises. He always hears us-whether we can 'hear' Him hearing us or not. His love for us covers us always-always hears us-never-ever leaves us.

God’s desire is for your love to be real. Make your prayer for that desire to be fulfilled in your heart.

…because He loves us…

Father in Heaven,

Forgive my weak desire and build a fire in my heart. I want to love You with all of me. I will trust You are there when my muddy mind tells me I'm wrong.

Great God of tender mercies!

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen