<\/p>\n
Desires are thoughts. Sadly, they often begin with the words of our two-year-old selves: \u201cI want that!\u201d We can easily think, for example, \u201cI want a car (or a house) like that.\u201d Or, \u201cI wanted the job he got.\u201d I want, I want, I want.<\/p>\n
Not all of our desires are bad, but many are. If we want something that belongs to others or if we want something at the expense of others, that is typically wrong. Pleasure and enjoyment are great blessings, but if we seek such things only for selfish reasons, that can be wrong too. We can easily deceive ourselves into thinking, \u201cI should have that . . . and why shouldn\u2019t I?\u201d Our desires can cause battles within us.<\/p>\n
How do we know if what we want is right or wrong? We can take it to God in prayer. And if we think, \u201cI can\u2019t possibly ask God for that,\u201d it is probably a wrongful desire.<\/p>\n
We can also have lots of good desires, though. We may want our children to do well in school. We may want our friend\u2019s marriage to be saved. We may want our church to grow. God is pleased when we ask for good things like these with the right motives.<\/p>\n
As we think about our desires, let\u2019s focus on those that can bring about good for our neighbors, family, and friends. Let\u2019s think about what can bring growth in God\u2019s kingdom throughout the world. Things like these are in line with the desires of God\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Desires are thoughts. Sadly, they often begin with the words of our two-year-old selves: \u201cI want that!\u201d We can easily think, for example, \u201cI want a car (or a house) like that.\u201d Or, \u201cI wanted the job he got.\u201d I want, I want, I want. Not all of our desires are bad, but many are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[86,269,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-28663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-devotionals","8":"tag-daily","9":"tag-devotional","10":"tag-today"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}