There is a pattern in some of the stories in the Bible that makes me sick. Here is this cycle: man is desperate for something and looks to God for help. God blesses man. Man thanks God and continues on his way. Man becomes complacent and lazy and sees himself as a god. Prosperity leaves man. Man is again desperate for something and looks to God for help….and so on. It is an awful and vicious cycle. Now there are exceptions. But they are just that, exceptions.

Many of us humans are just like that. We want what we want and supernatural promises are hard to have faith in. It is not a sin to want things, especially things like food and water and safety. However, the Lord says to trust Him and make those things that are important to Him, important to us. He tells us to trust Him with those basic needs and to seek Him first.

Matthew 6: ²⁵ Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? ²⁶ Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? 

Now I am not denying that I want things in this world. I wish I could meet all of my desires. But I have been thinking a lot lately about getting everything that I want. I wonder what does that even mean and what would that even look like? I am a human being and I am deep, deep pit of desires and wants and need. All I need to do is watch TV for an hour and I will realize some needs that need meeting—some of which I did not even know I had! Truly, the only time my body will stop wanting things and have all my desires met is when I am dead!

However, I realize that getting everything I want would not give me what God wants most for me…a desire to know Him. According to Him, THAT is the most important thing to have.

To some extent, I am thankful for my unmet wants and desires, even those that make me angry, bitter, and belligerent toward the Lord. I am thankful for them because they give me hope to look forward to the day when all of those needs will be met and there will not be a chance that i could put them before Him, that is, in Heaven. Hopefully, the work that the Lord is doing in me now is also teaching me to ready to be able to have those things on Earth, too. By ready I mean able to accept that which I desire but also be able to put Him first, despite having it. These unmet desires keep me out of the cycle of trusting God, getting all that I want, becoming lazy, fat, and stupid in terms of my walk wiht the Lord, which would lead to destruction, which would lead to repentance….they break the cycle.

Nevertheless, between now, those unmet desires are a thorn in my flesh, just like Paul had and just like David wanted things that he did not get and Jeremiah wanted things he did not get and many other people in the Bible lived with unmet desires. If nothing else, they compel to have faith in Him and in the promises of his Heaven.

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

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