(submitted by Kerry
Patton)
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and
enjoy safe pasture.
4Take delight in
the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to
the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: 6He will make your
righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Psalm 37:3-6
What do you want?
Unbridled desire
can be a treacherous thing…and not just in a sexual sense. The desire for anything can become consuming
to the point that all proper perspective is lost and the only thing in our
vision is that thing…whatever it
is. And the diversity of that thing can be vast. Desire may set its eye upon a relationship,
or a material possession. It can be
something as simple as a personal goal, or as complex as the control of a
company, a group of people, or an entire country. When we become so fixated on one thing, our
vision becomes practically blinded. We
become myopic to everything except
what we desire. I hear this sometimes in
counseling persons who are looking back on a bad decision, or a moral or
ethical failure. Common in their stories
are words similar to: “I don’t know what I was thinking…It’s like…all I could
see was (insert their failure or decision).
Nothing else mattered. I didn’t
think about the consequences…”
Merriam Webster
defines the word Myopia as:
·
a
condition in which the visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of
the eye resulting especially in defective vision of distant objects… and
·
a
lack of foresight or discernment: a
narrow view of something.
Have you ever been so captivated by a temptation…or a
possession…or a relationship…that you could not see anything else? Have you fallen into spiritual or relational,
or material myopia? I have. I think at one time or another everyone
has. And the end result of me being
there is generally the same: having is rarely the same as desiring. I say again for emphasis: “Having is rarely
the same as desiring.” Most generally,
whatever thing that catches my eye brings far less satisfaction upon having it
as the yearning I suffered while captivated in desiring it. In our faith, this could be described as
temptation.
James 1:14-15 says:
“14…but each person is tempted when they
are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15Then, after
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives
birth to death.”
Changing Desires
Verses 4 and 5 of
Psalm 37 speak wisdom into the realm of what we desire: “4Take delight in the
Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to
the Lord…” The logic could be easily misunderstood. “Hey…
If I will simply get really committed to the Lord, and take my delight in him,
then he will give me every desire of my heart!” Uh…no. That’s not the point. The point is that as I take delight in the
Lord and commit my way to him, I find that my desires change, my priorities
change, and the passions of my heart are transformed toward higher and better
desires, priorities, relationships, goals, needs…EVERYTHING becomes more and
more Christ like. And truly, that is the
point, isn’t it. Not whether I get what
has enticed my flesh or ambition.
Adjust Your Advertising
Every year, more money is spent than you and I
could count on advertising. Everything
is for sale: clothes, food, automobiles, sex, cigarettes, and…you name
it... It’s being marketed to us through
television, radio, print, internet ads, music, and movies. We are being directly baited to buy into
things that we may not necessarily need.
Yet millions upon millions upon millions are being spent to ensure that
we suddenly realize how much we “need” those things.
The same thing is happening in the spiritual
realm. Satan and his minions are without
ceasing in their campaign to get humanity to buy into any number of indulgent
sins at any given time. They are
“advertising” toward the human heart and mind to get us to become myopic toward
what he is selling: eternal condemnation and spiritual death. If we are wise, however, we will recognize
how we are being attacked and we will refocus our attention away from what is
being sold. We can avoid spiritual
myopia quite simply by being evermore diligent about keeping our eyes on
Jesus. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the
church at Philippi in Philippians 4:8-9:
“8Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such
things. 9Whatever you have
learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And
the God of peace will be with you.”
Prayer
Almighty God, your word describes the human
heart as deceitful…and truly it is.
Today, I pray for and inventory of those things I desire. As King David prayed, “Search me, O God and
know my heart, try me and know my mind…and see if there be any wicked way in
me.” Teach me to set my desires upon you
so that what I will have is what you desire for me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
