There’s a reason why you’re here listening. A reason why you pressed play. It wasn’t random at all, however you are likely listening at this moment without the full awareness of WHY. But I know why. You’re listening because you have a desire to do better. A desire to show up and do more with your life. A desire to become a better person, a better wife or mother. A desire to improve. And often times we treat that desire as a burden. It’s viewed as that nagging feeling guilting you with a whole list of what you should do. You know sometimes a girl just wants to sit down with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s without that nagging feeling of “you shouldn’t be eating this”. But you see what you and I term as a burden or a guilt trip is likely just a DESIRE TO DO BETTER.
What a blessing that desire is. It will guide you into making the right choices. Where do the desires of your heart come from? Well let’s see.
Psalm 37: 4 – Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
I’ve always referred to it as the genie in a bottle verse. “God I want, please gimme.” Give me the desires of my heart. I want it, gimme it. But I believe we’ve been reading this scripture all wrong. It’s not that God will give you every little thing you want, but rather the desires you have in your heart have been given to you by God. The true desires of your heart are God inspired, planted within you by your creator. The desires of your heart will guide you to your biggest, best, most fulfilling, most powerful life. The best version of you is guided by the desires of your heart.
Yes, remember your desire to do better. Your desire to show up and do more with life. Your desire to improve your relationships. These desires will guide you to the best version of you and the BIG Life you were created for.
Embrace those desires. Stop viewing them as burdens. It’s not a burden to want more out of life, it’s a blessing. That desire will cause you to do the things you don’t feel like doing, and it’s typically the things you don’t feel like doing that you actually need to do and will ultimately improve your life. But it starts with a desire … and that desire was given to you by God.
HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART. He has placed within you the things which you should truly desire.
There’s a great little quote floating around facebook these days.
“Junk food you’ve craved for an hour,
or the body you’ve craved for a lifetime.
Your decision.”
Ahhhhh, doesn’t that just hit you right in the gut. Yeah, the gut that was craving Oreos for breakfast! Junk food you’ve craved for an hour or the body you’ve craved for a lifetime. Your decision.
And here’s the conflict. Anything good that God does, the enemy comes in with his nasty little ways and tries to screw it up! Satan always offers the cheaper, easier, imitation, knock off version of the real, genuine, legitimate offer of God. God offers us health and a strong body and he offers it through a DESIRE TO BE HEALTHY. Don’t miss that. He gives us the desire and that desire will lead us to the right choices. He doesn’t offer it through magic pills and get skinny quick schemes. He offers health through a desire in our heart and then he says, “use this desire to make the right choices. You’re a big girl, you’re smart, you know what to do, now just do it.”
But then in swoops the enemy with Oreos and Cheese Puffs with a liter of Diet Coke and says, but you can have this right now.
Dang you Satan, why do your ways of killing, stealing and destroying have to taste so delicious?
And so we have battling desires:
Temporary, superficial, surface level desires that lead us to destruction.
—OR—
Genuine, lasting, heart desires that guide us to our destiny.
Destruction or destiny … all a result of which desire we listen to. Desires of the flesh versus desires of the heart.
What are the desires of your heart given to you by your creator? Follow them. Be guided by those desires. They are a blessing which act as a roadmap to your destiny. And what are the desires of your flesh being directed by your enemy which have been tempting you? Recognize them as such. They are bait. Don’t take them.
