Is Your Desire Too Small?

Desire is a double-edged sword.
Desire awakens the hope of attaining a “good.”
On the other hand, desire rouses lament because what is hoped for has not been attained.

Desire’s tension is analogous to Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
After leaving Egypt, and before entering the Promised Land, is a period of testing, and wandering.

In the desert, Israel’s desire for the Promised Land began to die.
As did their trust in God.

Like Israel, God allows us to wander in the desert of desire.
And like Israel, we often surrender our noble desires for lesser goods.
We believe that the lesser good will numb the pain of desire.

It never does.

The tension of desire is purposeful:

To determine whether the desire is great…
worthy of us—worthy of God (often our desires are trite, worldly, not Godly).

To purify the desire
(Often we desire something for ourselves and not for God.
If God grants us the unpurified desire, we become Luciferian).

To forge deeper trust in Him
(To surrender self-reliance. To rely on His ways and not the world’s).

Abraham desired an heir—hope was awakened.
Not having an heir—grief is stirred.
Abraham was forged in the “desert of desire.”
He learned to desire something great—beyond his ability to fulfill.
He allowed that intention to be purified.
He learned to trust himself less, and trust God more.

Yet, Abraham (At Sarah’s bidding) slept with his slave-woman, Hagar.
Hagar means “to flee.”
Abraham fled from the “desert of desire”—God’s will.
Abraham’s trust temporarily waned.
Abraham numbed his pain with a worldly solution.
Ishmael was conceived…and all of Islam.
Fleeing from God has dramatic consequences.

What is your desire?

Are you tempted to flee from God…to numb the pain of not having attained that for which you hope?

If you are not…then your desire is not big enough.
Your desire must be too big for you to obtain…and big enough for God to provide.

But this demands faith in God.
“Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6).
“All things are possible to the one who believes” (Mk 9:23).

Your “desert of desire” exists that you may trust in God the Father.
Therefore, remain in the desire and you will remain in God.