When God Redirects What We Want
Sometimes we ask God to change what we want.
We recognize that a desire has taken hold of us. Maybe it has become too important. Maybe we have built too much of our life around it. Maybe we know that what we want isn’t what God wants for us.
So we ask Him to take the desire away.
But what if God isn’t always trying to remove the desire?
What if He is trying to redirect it?
Desire isn’t inherently bad. We were created to want things. We desire connection, purpose, security, beauty, belonging, and significance. Even good desires can lead us in the wrong direction when we allow them to become more important than the One who gave them to us.
Sometimes the problem isn’t what we want.
Sometimes it is where our wanting is taking us.
This can be difficult to recognize because we tend to think transformation means becoming someone different. We imagine God changing our hearts by taking away the things that matter to us and replacing them with something better.
But God often works more gently than that. He can take the same desire and teach us to carry it differently. He can take the desire for significance and turn it toward service.
The desire for security and turn it toward trust.
The desire to be known and turn it toward relationship.
The desire to accomplish something and teach us faithfulness along the way.
The desire may remain.
The direction changes.
This is one of the reasons the wilderness can be such a revealing place. When we step away from the noise and the routines that normally carry us, we begin to notice not only what we want, but where those desires have been taking us.
God changing your desires may not look like suddenly wanting something completely different.
Sometimes it looks like discovering that the thing you’ve been chasing was never the destination.
Maybe God isn’t asking you to stop wanting.
Maybe He is asking you to let Him lead your wanting.
Trail Marker
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4
This verse is often read as a promise that God will give us whatever we want.
But perhaps there is something deeper happening.
What happens to our desires when we learn to delight in God?
Maybe the transformation isn’t simply that God gives us our desires.
Maybe, as we draw closer to Him, He begins to reshape what we desire.
Not by making us want nothing.
But by teaching us what is worth wanting.
A Question to Carry
What if God isn’t asking you to give up the desire?
What if He is asking you to trust Him with the direction?
Take that question with you.
You don’t have to answer it immediately.
Sometimes the first step is simply noticing where your desires have been leading you.
Continue the Journey
This is the trailhead for Episode 4.
The question waiting on the trail is simple:
What does God want you to desire?
When you’re ready, step onto the trail.
First…
Listen to the podcast:
Then…
Ask God where He may be directing the desires already present in your heart.