Through the holiday season, we are inundated with commercials, movies, and newspaper, radio and TV ads. There seems to be no limit or boundary to the way they try to influence us to buy what they are selling. This incredible amount of verbal/visual stimuli enables us to desire many things in life—some we need, and some we don’t need.
These strong desires coupled with work and family issues can leave you feeling great despair, depleted of hope and faith in God. How do we balance desires of the flesh with desire for God?
Look at the great faith David exhibited in difficult times: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Ps. 27:4, NKJV).
David’s desire was not to lock himself in the temple and marvel at the beauty of a physical building. David was seeking to experience a deeper relationship with God through everyday living. That is what he was going after. You, too, can have this deeper relationship with God.
From creation through the Gospels of Jesus Christ, to the present. We see God in relationship with humankind through His incredible amount of love for creation. God continues to show His great love for us—even when we desire worldly things over Him.
Let’s seek after that deeper relationship and cast off the worldly desires that distract us!
Prayer + Reflection
- Ask God to filter out all the unimportant things that demand your attention and draw you away from Him.
- Ask the Lord to open your heart to desire only Him. Commit to seeking Him above all else.
- Read and pray through the rest of Psalm 27. Pray the Lord would keep you and your family safe in these uncertain times: “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock” (v. 5).
- Let’s remember to lift up our Foursquare area missionaries, who oversee the work of FMI in multiple nations, among various people groups and in diverse languages.
Share your thoughts. See comments below, and add your own.
