God Wants to Be Your One Desire
"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." (Psalm 73:25)
Imagine that your grandmother has asked you to clean out her attic. You walk up to the top of the stairs and begin wading through old boxes and dusty furniture. You wonder what you should clean first.
Looking to your left, you see an antique trunk sitting in the corner. You walk over, lift the top, and peer inside. There, sitting on the bottom of the trunk, is an old brass oil lamp. You pick it up and gently rub the dust away.
POOF!!!!!
All of a sudden, a genie pops out of the lamp! With a deep, booming voice, he says, "Tell me your one wish and I shall make it come true!" What would you wish for? What one thing do you desire most? If you could have anything in the world, what would you ask for?
The writer of Psalm 73 wrote that his greatest desire in life was God. The psalmist realized that God is everything that he needed--light, salvation, strength, protection, comfort, and joy. There is nothing he desires more than God. The psalmist looked around at what others have--wealth, possessions, or friends--and realized that without God, all of those things are as twigs burning in a fire.
When you want something more than God, you are worshipping an idol. Now, you probably do not have a golden statue in your house that you bow down to, but when you want or love something more than God, it is just as though you are bowing down to it and saying, "you are my god." The first commandment says that you should put nothing in front of God (Exodus 20:3). Instead, you are to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5).
What kinds of things are you tempted to put in front of God – TV, clothes, music, XBox, Playstation3, sports, shopping? You need to think about these things and ask God to take away those idols in your life so that He is your only desire. You increase your desire for God by reading His Word to learn more about Him and become more like Him. The more you know and learn about God, the more He will be your one desire. You want to be able to say with the psalmist, "there is nothing I want more than to know and love God."
You must desire God more than anything!
My Response:
» Do I need to ask God's forgiveness for wanting something else more than Him?
» What do I put in front of God?
» What can I do to increase my desire for God?