Desire

“Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.”  (Romans 10:1 NLT)

The greatest danger with desire is it too often focuses on that which would bring pleasure to ourselves. Desire and pleasure aren’t inerrantly sinful but can very quickly become sinful if not kept in the bounds of the Spirit’s control. Notice Paul’s greatest desire, his deep longing wasn’t something for himself, but salvation for his lost brothers and sisters in the Jewish Faith.

What does that tell us? It tells us Jewish people are not saved by being Jewish, they’re only saved by faith in the living Christ, just like everyone else. Yes, of course, the Jews were favored in the Old Testament and declared as God’s Chosen people, but only because it would be into the Jewish heritage Jesus would be born. Once He was born the focus quickly shifted from Jews as a people or nation, to Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Does that mean God no longer loves or has a place for Jewish people? Of course not.

The Jews are the primary reason Jesus died, but their rejection of Him opened the door of opportunity for all of us who are non-Jewish to be included in His grace gift of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Jesus, as He expressed in John 1:51, made it clear that He alone “is the stairway between heaven and earth.” Only those who by faith yield their life and allegiance to Him will walk that stairway and one day enter into His perfect heaven.

If your greatest desire isn’t to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus, you need to pray for a realignment of your desires, because lustful, wrong, and inappropriate desires will never lead to where you ultimately want to be. It’s ironic in some ways that desire can be strong, but unidentified. It’s not uncommon for someone to express a strong desire for something but they can’t explain exactly what it is.

C. S. Lewis addressed this when he wrote: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” It’s interesting to me that desire can be our strongest motivator to run from Jesus or to run to Him. Consider the story of the Prodigal son in Luke 15.

The son’s desire to leave home consumed him until he finally got what he thought he wanted, packed his bag and ran away to the far country. We’re not told how long his money lasted, but when it was gone, so was his desire to run. The Bible says in verse 17: “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!” Then came the climax of his heart’s desire: “I will go home to my father…”

Is that where you find yourself today? At the end of your resources? At the end of a long journey of running from the Lord? Your desire to be somebody, to make something of yourself, to prove your worth, to find your own way by following your heart has left you empty, cold, alone, and very lost.

I have some very good news for you: That’s exactly where you need to be to become all the Lord Jesus died to enable you to become. Like the runaway son in the story above, you can find the answer to every desire you’ll ever have in the Lord of Creation who died to allow you to have life as it was always meant to be. Just tap anewstory.com and learn how you can put your past behind you and begin a new life you never dared dream existed.

You may be tempted to believe it’s too late, but it’s not and I guarantee you on the authority of God’s holy Word, that when you yield your life and allegiance to Jesus, if you’ll allow Him, the Holy Spirit will move into your life and change you from the inside out in ways that refresh your life and make you glad to be alive. You just need to put your “yes” on the table and trust Him to become your heart’s greatest desire.

Blessings, Ed 😊