Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Prov 4:23
My husband and I like to go to dinner occasionally at our favorite hangout and we usually end up ordering the same thing. He has his favorite dish and so do I. Is this a sign that we’re getting old? Once in a while however, we live on the edge and decide to order something else. When that happens I’m always excited for the plate of food to arrive at our table because well, its something different. When the server comes to our table as soon as I look over at my husbands plate I think to myself, “Oh, I wish I ordered that.” I was confident I ordered what I wanted until I saw something else.
We all have wants. But getting what we want can be deceiving . . . and even dangerous. It usually leaves us wanting more. If what we want leads to a cycle dissatisfaction or an emptiness unfulfilled, maybe what we want needs a closer look.
We’ll never get what we really want until we discover what is most fulfilling. But choosing what’s most fulfilling isn’t natural. We’ve all had the experience of getting what we want, only to discover it didn’t deliver or if it did, it wasn’t for long. But how do we avoid being deceived by our wants?
What you naturally want is often in conflict with what you ultimately and truly long for. So, how do you put aside those natural wants and pursue what’s going to be the greatest benefit to your life?
I know this where you may want a three-point strategy on how to identify what you want from what is best. Let me say for the record not all wants are bad. The woman who is not able to conceive and wants desperately to be a mother. The single woman who has cried out to God and is now realizing decades have passed and she’s still single. What about the woman whose marriage to a difficult man finds herself wanting, hoping and praying that one day the marriage will get better? These are not bad wants!
The crossroads for every one of us as believers boils down to this. Is God Himself my all in all?
Ladies, over the years I’ve learned and I’m still learning, that as a child of God only He can deliver all that I truly long for. Daily time in His word teaches me that, daily fellowship with Him in prayer confirms it, striving to be obedient to His will reveal’s it, and serving in my church seals it.
When I allow my wants to go unchecked and unedited by His word, the whining and the wants start all over again. Yet, as quickly as I intentionally (not listening to how I feel) and pursue His voice, His wisdom and His fellowship, my oh my how those wants pale in comparison.
I love this quote by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. “God is good whether or not His choices seem right to us, whether or not we feel it, whether or not it seems true, and whether or not He gives us everything that we want.”
Going to dinner and wishing I had ordered something other than what I thought I wanted, is a funny and relatable picture not to be taken too seriously. But, if the truth be told it speaks volumes about the human heart.
Of my heart He is the Portion,
Of my joy the ceaseless Spring,
Savior, Sanctifier, Keeper,
Glorious Lord and loving King.
