Where My Will Meets His

Michelangelo's painting, Creation of Adam

from Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo

Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.  (Psalm 37:4-6)

How often must we manage our own competing desires?  How often are we required to choose, between multiple desires, which one is a high enough priority to take immediate action to pursue?  Daily?  Hourly?  More frequently than that?

As I sit here typing this post, I am also longing to go back to bed.  I did not get my usual sleep time, last night, plus I have a headache, and I would very much like to crawl back under the covers.  Yet, instead, I’m up writing a blog post.

Why?  Because, as much as I would like to go back to bed, I want even more, to finish this post.  I know I will probably have other opportunities for sleep during the week, but this is likely my only opportunity for writing this post.  So, for me, right now, writing this post is a higher priority, or a deeper desire, than another hour of sleep.

Yet, even as I type, I also pause to sip my coffee.  Granted, the sip of coffee gives me time to think about my choice of words, as well as to combat fatigue.  However, I am making a deliberate choice to stop typing in order to sip coffee.  I am choosing, momentarily, to make a sip of coffee a higher priority than the typing, although I have already chosen to make typing a higher priority than sleep.

Multiple competing desires!  Choosing to forego fulfillment of one desire in order to act on another.  These are the multiple decisions we make during the course of our normal daily activities. 

Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

So, what are the deepest desires of our hearts?  What fundamental desires or priorities motivate us to make the daily choices we act on?

The desire to care and provide for our family is a high priority for many of us.  The desire to be a blessing to others may also rate very high.  But what deeper motivation caused us to even choose to have a family or to become involved in a ministry?  The desire for significance and purpose?  The desire to leave a legacy when we pass from this life?  The desire to love and be loved?  The desire for intimacy?

These are all deep motivators.  Yet we’re still talking about multiple desires that potentially compete for priority, and sometimes require a choice of one above another.

So, what is the deepest desire of my heart?  Is there one over-riding core desire from which all the other desires are born?  If so, what is that desire?

…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will… (Ephesians 1:4-5)

To be what I was created to be…to do what I was created to do…

Could any desire be more fundamental than this?  To be who I was created to be?  To fulfill the destiny which I was created to fulfill? 

God created man in His own image… (Genesis 1:27)

For me, as for other true believers in Christ, the innermost deepest desire of my heart is to become all that God has predestined me to be…to become a true child of God, fully conformed to His image…reflecting His glory in my own unique way, as He created and predestined me to do. 

This is the deepest desire of my heart, from which all other desires are born…even those desires that find their expression in distorted perceptions and sinful actions proving counterproductive to the realization of my deepest heart’s desire.

Too often, Christianity is viewed as restrictive disciplines and rules imposed on us by God.  Too often, we view God’s direction as boundaries keeping us from doing the things we really want to do…as being required to miss out on all the fun pleasures that others get to enjoy, but which our God prohibits us from enjoying.

And yet, as we discussed in an earlier post, God respects our choices.  He holds human free will as sacred, and does not force us to do His bidding.  Rather, He allows us to come to Him freely…or to choose not to come to Him at all…

God is not keeping us from doing anything! 

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

Rather, He is holding us accountable to our deepest heart’s desire, while providing direction leading to the fulfillment of our destiny, which He alone knows.

Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

Christianity is not about the denial of pleasure and desires.  Rather, it is about the relentless pursuit of our deepest heart’s desire.  It is about trusting God to help us wisely manage our competing desires, to work toward the fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desire.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.

God remains faithful to the vision of my deepest heart’s desire, even when I lose focus and stray from the pursuit of the vision.

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)

And it is here, at the very core of my heart, in my deepest desire, that my will meets His!

 

What happens when your will meets God’s will?  When the deepest desire of your heart matches the desire of God’s heart?

 

[This post linked to God-Bumps , Beholding Glory , Graceful , Seedlings , Wellspring]