What do you do when the bug of desire bites you? You are going along well. You have your budget in place. You are saving money and living within your means. You have a plan for your credit card debt. And then they have to go and release the new iPhone! Desire hits, budgeting all of a sudden feels mean and restrictive, and who cares about debt… there is a credit card with your name on it! The iPhone could be yours!
No, do not go out and buy an iPhone and tell your wife I told you to do it! I am just identifying something that happens to all of us when the bug of desire bites. For me, it was decorating my living room. All of a sudden today, I looked around my living room and just had an overwhelming desire to change everything. Do I go out and buy all new stuff even though it’s not in the budget. No, but I sure wanted to today. So what do you do with those feelings.
No matter where you are in life, no matter how spiritual, how wise, how wealthy, you will always have more desires than you have money for. If you had all the money in the world you might still wish that you had more so that you could personally end world hunger. Wouldn’t that be amazing! The point is, it is not the stuff that satisfies the desire, it is what you do with your desire.
When my brother and I were little, we were in K-mart one day and my brother really wanted a toy. He brought it to my Mom asking if he could have it. My Mom had been teaching us to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit so she told my brother to go and ask Jesus if he could have that toy. My brother went walking off with the toy and returned after a little bit with tears in his eyes. “I can’t hear Him, Mommy,” Brad said. So my Mom so wisely said to him, “Bradley, I want you to give me your toy in my hand.” And Brad did. “Now, I want you to give me your desire for that toy in my other hand.” So Brad took his hand and just “play-play” gave her his desire in her other hand. “Now, go and ask Jesus again if He wants you to have that toy.” In a little bit my brother returned. The tears were gone and he had a huge smile on his face. “Jesus says I’m not supposed to have the toy.” There were no fits. There was no more crying. He was just so excited that God had spoken to him (and so was my Mom 🙂 ). He learned such a huge lesson that day, but I think it is a lesson for all of us.
Do you know that sometimes God actually wants you to have the desires in your heart? Many of us are afraid to ask because we think that He only says no. So we set about trying to get things in our own strength and wisdom without asking Him, which never fills that desire. But sometimes, the “bug of desire” isn’t from God and isn’t part of His amazing plan for us. It isn’t that He’s mean or stingy. He just knows better than we do what we actually need. And sometimes it is just a matter of timing. His answer might not actually be “No”, it might be “Not right now”.
So as I asked the Lord today about my living room today, I felt in my heart that just like my brother and his toy, I needed to give Him my desire. So I just told God all about my desire for my living room and then I gave Him my desire. And then I asked Him what the answer was to my desire. And what I felt Him say to my heart was that I needed to walk around my home and just thank Him for all of the different things that I love about my home. And do you know what? It turns out, nothing kills the bug like gratitude. 🙂