My Heart's Desire

Sometimes in life we act like little children. God calls us to be child-like in our faith: open, easy to trust Him, ready to believe in Him. But He does not call us to be childish. Childishness is based in immaturity and acting as a child would. Child-like infers possessing the endearing qualities that children hold, rather than the childish qualities that life and growth beckon us to leave behind as we get older. When we Christians maintain a childish attitude then we face life expecting everything to be handed to us and when we don't get what we want we throw a fit, pout or sit down to wallow in our own self-made bed of pity.

There are times in life that, no matter our growth in the Lord, we retreat back to a childish place; most especially if He is calling us to wait on Him for something. Oh, we often do not like to be patient and wait on God's timing for things. There are times I have thought for sure He was giving me a message and guidance in a particular direction but then when I walked the way He told me to, the outcome was different than I thought it would be or the very thing I thought for sure He was going to bless me with was not there waiting for me when I thought my task was accomplished. Don't get me wrong, I don't walk a path He sends me down just to receive a particular blessing but I do know that as I am more obedient in Him, blessings will reign. I know that the closer I am to my Lord, the more clearly His word will be to me. Psalms 37: 4 says: Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe this and live with this truth written upon my heart but what has inevitably happened to me at times in the past is that I did not hold out with faith and patience. I waited for His guidance but then did not stay the course long enough to find out the fullness of His plan or for Him to give me the true desire of my heart.

Wouldn't it be an empty, loveless world if He never completed what He started? But He does. He proved this by the coming of the Messiah His son and by His death on the cross for our sins. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, also as He said He would. It should be our goal to be more Christ-like and yet too many times God calls us to something and we humans never complete the task or we don't hold on with patience and faith as He calls us to do. Like Paul, we must run the race and not give up…we are not to falter nor to waiver in our steadfastness but hold on for that which He has called us.

I recently likened my own faults in this area to that of a child on Christmas morning: the child who hints and begs for a particular gift for months ahead of time. At times we are all like the child who drops hints so strongly that it turns into cute notes left here and there for months, joking about a special gift and even circling pictures in the Sunday ads of that very thing she so much longs to have. Then, when the beautiful day comes, morning being filled with all kinds of excitement, this child rushes to the gifts and searches under the tree. After unwrapping every gift she has, she sits dismayed, slumped over…the boxes, bags and goodies that came were all so wonderful but the one thing she wanted the most was not there. The very gift that she almost begged for and even did extra chores throughout the year hoping to somehow earn was just not under the tree. On knees, head bowed, tears slowly spilling on to her cheeks, she gives up. But the child, in her childish ways, did not look up to see her father coming out of the closet…where he had been all night long putting together the shiny, new pink bike – the very gift she had longed for and prayed for all along.

We are often childish like the child at Christmas time. We want what we want and even if we hold out faith for it we often expect it at a certain time because we think it's the right time for it…and when we don't get it then we give up. We forget that God's timing is not ours OR worse yet, we don't care if God's timing is not ours. We still want what we want when we want it. Tears come easily after a long race or a long and bumpy path but even amongst the tears, He can still be waiting just around the corner with that beautiful thing our heart desires so very much. So, do not give up. Do not quit. We must press on just as Paul did. We must keep running the race. Again, we are called to be child-like in our faith and devotion to our God but not to be childish and immature in our approach to our God and His plan for this life.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things… Phil 3: 12-15

~ Karen
www.womaninspired.com