Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I want to Be

God created desire, and it is God’s delight to fulfill desire. It’s true that our desires need to be cleansed and purified, and we must say no to any desires that would keep us from living in the flow of the Spirit.  We must be ready to sacrifice a lesser desire for the sake of living a greater life. But on the other hand, God’s plan every time we have an authentic desire – a God-implanted desire in us – we come to understand more deeply what a good God He is.  God has wired us and our desire can be part of this river of life that flows in us with power and energy. James says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of all lights who satisfies the desires of those who fear Him.”

 We all have material desires because God created all that stuff and it is good. But if this desire chokes our generosity then it is time to say no. But when we are surrounded by beauty, color and design, we can embrace that God-given joy and thank Him, and share with others. We may have a desire to achieve and this is not bad. Look at the apostle Paul. He was so motivated to achieve but it was harnessed so that he could serve others.  We can use our abilities to accomplish good for others too. We all have relational desires as well. Take time for deep friendships and exercise the gift of hospitality for fellowship of the Spirit.  We also have physical desires because our bodies were made by God. We have appetites for things to eat, drink, touch and see. Thank God that He gave us our body so we can see, hear, touch, laugh and dance. As we open ourselves to the flow of the Spirit in our physical desires, we begin to love God more and more…not because we should but because we are getting to know Him more and more. Psalm  103 shows how much He delights in us and satisfies our desires.