Desire is a powerful force within that can cause us to be driven passed what our wills are strong enough to manage
Wait, serve, and learn.
There is purpose in the waiting and in the process.
There is a bigger picture to be had later in the journey, to be recognized not until its proper timing.
In John Maxwell’s book, Learning From the Giants, he puts it like this:
“God’s purpose works only with God’s timing. We usually want what God has for us right now. But our desire to lead for God is really only as great as our willingness to wait on Him. Be patient.” (pg. 28)
What does that mean exactly?
Is there truly a correlation between the two . . . being willing to wait and our desires?
There is, and for the first time I think I am starting to see it clearly.
So many times I either prayed out loud or desperately thought it in my head for God to take my unmet desires away that were so strong as they would ache within me.
I knew it wasn’t His will for those to be taken away from me, for they were given to me by Him. I knew that, yet my heart was so longing for those desires to be fulfilled that it was leaving me sick with disappointment to have so many opportunities seem to pass me by. Those desires were left unmet.
But through this journey walking life out with the Father, He reveals more and more that the desires which burn must grow and become the driving force to help us wait for or fight for or take hold of all He has, even through the time while they are unmet.
It has to be more than just me choosing to be strong or choosing to have hope. It sadly doesn’t work that way. People commit suicide every day all around the world because our wills alone cannot push us on or may at least fail us. We eventually fail in some capacity left to our own strength and most assuredly never reaching the potential we could if we waited for God's perfect timing in our lives.
It has to be more . . . something deeper within us . . . within our hearts.
It has to come from desire.
Desire is a powerful force within that can cause us to be driven passed what our wills are strong enough to manage.
It is what people mean when they talk about someone who people might call the "under-dog" not having as much skill or talent than the others yet they have "heart" and that ends up being enough.
There is a quote from the movie Lone Survivor when Mark Walburg’s character says:
“There’s a storm inside of us. I’ve heard many team guys speak of this. A burning.. a river.. a drive… an unrelenting desire to push yourself harder and farther than anyone can think possible . . .”
When everything else seems to fail you, it is desire that pushes past the physical and mental capacities to get us through what we normally would’t be able to get through without that burning fire inside of us.
God speaks to our hearts . . . He stirs these deep things within us as a seal over our lives and over our final decisions if we let Him.
Of course He won’t take these huge dreams away from me, the things that burn desire in me . . . He won’t let them die, not if they were placed there by Him in the first place! He doesn’t let me give up and stay there. He lets the desires for more, the aching, and longings He lets burn inside of me burn for the call on my life.
He lets the desire in me fuel my focus to take one more step, one step at a time, eventually venturing to the places He has for me to go . . . to the people He plans for me to love and bring Him to.
He fans the desires like a docile flame needing to be set ablaze.
No, He won’t let them die. That would be too easy.
The pain is simply a part of the process we must go through in order for our desires to be aligned with our Father's purposes.
I found myself sometime ago doing something I don’t think I have ever done before, truly.
I began to pray for Him to grow my desires and to feed them like a fire within me. Instead of asking Him to take them away, I submitted them to Him in the purposes He wanted for them.
The very thing I know the enemy of my soul wants to be my discouragement and destruction would end up being what God used to help direct me through this journey.
What belonged to Him would grow and the passion would act as a compass leading me towards the direction He desired for my life.
It changed everything, that I would no longer neglect them, my desires, because of the pain and ignore them in my attempts to create my own life for myself.
Our desires when surrendered to Him can be trusted because it is no longer us at the helm of our life's ship . . . no longer our hands on the steering its wheel.
We must remember, it is Him that gives us desire that burns. It is up to us to choose what to do with it, and it is only our loving Creator who knows what it is for.
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
-James 1:2-4 (MSG)
(Photo: taken one night during a backpacking trip through Arkansas)
