Hosanna Restoration Church

I am not sure why it is so hard for Christians to believe that God wants to give us the desires of our hearts. I can understand why those who do not know God would doubt it, but I just do not see why we doubt it so much.

Desire is a big word when it comes to our relationship with God. First of all, He desired us. He started the whole cycle when He created us and then when the relationship fell apart, He was the one that desired us enough to give His son Jesus Christ to die for us. He desires that we desire Him. If our desire is for Him, then it is that much easier for Him to complete the good work that He has begun in us.

In recent devotions, we have talked about forever, about worship, and about going all the way with God. After discussing things that press us a little deeper into our faith walk, I feel like it is important to encourage one and all that God is able to bring everyone into that place with Him if only we will set our hearts on that very thing. After all, God does warn us in His word that everyone who desires to live godly will suffer persecution. In other words, if you want to get close to God be prepared for the resistance and the persecution.

Much of the persecution will come in the form of condemnation. The moment you say yes to going deeper with God, the enemy rises up and condemns you wherever he can. For instance you may hear a word about worship and you no more than decide that you are willing to go to any extent to glorify God and the devil comes along and tells you that your worship could never please God. He will remind you of everything you’ve done recently that would make your worship unacceptable. Don’t listen to that nonsense. If it is the desire of your heart to worship God, just go for it.

Or perhaps as you pondered going all the way with God all you could think of were all the areas you have failed to keep up with your plans. You may have desired to read your Bible more, but you just have not read it as much as you think you should. Don’t be discouraged. Keep pressing. God sees your heart and He knows that if you keep pressing you will do fine. The same goes with prayer. Many times people will be determined that they are going to pray for an hour every day. The only problem is they try to make the hour the first day and when they realize that ten minutes seems to be forever they feel condemned. Hey, praise the Lord for ten minutes and try to do it five more times.

The point I am trying to make here is that if you desire God, He will see you through. He will help you to overcome those things that separate you and hold you back. All you need to do is desire and obey, and then trust the Lord to take you all the way. Remember, we are being perfected. None of us are there yet. In fact, as long as we feel like we still have far to go, we will continue to move closer.