Trading What We Want to What He Wants for Us

             I was going to write about the Isaiah 55 passage that preceded my first blog, and it will still relate to what I am about to write, but this strikes me as more important.

            Reading my Bible today I came across a very small verse that struck me in the context of a much longer passage. In Luke 14:25-35 Jesus is speaking about discipleship and the cost of following Him. I won’t quote the whole passage, but it would be beneficial to read. Following two illustrations of how much being a disciple will cost the people that are contemplating following Him, Jesus says this, “So, likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.” Stop for a moment and let that sink in. Everything. Try counting up all the possessions you would miss having around, and then look at how many things you still have left around you that didn’t make it on the list. Pretty staggering? Mine was too.

            If this is the end of the story, then it is no wonder that so many Christians balk at this truth. After having a fantastic conversion experience, suddenly we come across this little verse and think, wait. Jesus saved me just so He could take away my family, my financial stability, my friends, my health, my happiness, for the not easy work of following after Him? I’m not so sure I really want this anymore.

            Thankfully this is NOT the end of the story. The second part comes in the verses from Isaiah that I quoted last time.  Those verses show us what Jesus wants to give to us in exchange for us surrendering everything to Him. I have decided to memorize this passage and make it one of my life verses. I'm going to work through this passage backwards, so hang with me.

            God wants to give us the sure mercies of David. Now, in the context of the prophecy this was taken out of, these sure mercies of David probably refer to David’s unbroken line of kingship in Israel. However, David had a lot more mercies in his life than just that. God had anointed him to be a leader from birth. Then as a youth Samuel anointed him as the next King of Israel. God guided David through a tempestuous relationship with Saul, the current King of Israel, gave him a precious friendship with Jonathan, kept him safe through all of Saul’s hunting him, and his various battles with the Philistines. As a King, it wasn’t like David was perfect; in fact, he committed adultery (an offense punishable by death by stoning under the Leviticus law), and then murdered the woman’s husband to try to cover up the inconvenient proof of the sin.  Even so, David is usually remembered in the Bible as “the man after God’s own heart.” He was blessed, and those blessings continued all the way down the generations. Those are a lot of blessings for us to look forward to!

            God wants to give life to our souls. We know that God is the only One who can bestow either life or death to our souls, and that without Him our souls will die.

            God wants our souls to delight themselves in fatness! All of you foodies out there, I don’t know about you, but this is staggering to me. My soul can delight itself in fatness; I didn’t know fatness in any sense was good. Yet here fatness stands for abundance, so we can be sure that God wants us to be abundantly blessed. This fragment of a verse speaks volumes to me. The abundance that I long for is this spiritual abundance, not the dissatisfying abundance of food that Satan wants me to settle for consuming!  God’s abundance cannot be consumed, it cannot be anything but good for us in our lives, and it will NEVER run out.

            God wants us to be satisfied. He states this in a question. Why do you spend money on what is not food, and your labor on what does not satisfy? I could ask myself this question many times. God wants us to be satisfied, but we lose sight of this truth so quickly, and fall once again for Satan’s lies.

            Finally, God wants to GIVE all of this to us. I know I get so lost in everything I should be DOING as a Christian that I forget about how much God wants to give to us. Those of you who are mothers can probably understand this even more than I can, He is a Father, and parents long to give good things to their children.

            I hope that this can serve to highlight the goodness that God wants for us. I also hope that in some small ways all of you can be inspired and strengthened to search out the holding places that Satan has gained in your lives. Find out the things that you allow to distract you from the goodness God wants from you. Throw out the old habits that hide the best that God wants for you, replacing His free spiritual food with ‘junk food’ that only feeds your guilt and need.

In the polishing process, we are being shaped into a treasure fit for the King of Heaven.