God invites us to listen to our desires

How does God speak to your desires?

Desires might be the difference between humans and any other creature. Never content to have just what we need, we are driven by desire. Call it a thirst for something more. Call it a hunger for more than bread, more than meat. The ancient revelation of the scriptures ask us to not just control desire, but to listen to our desire. For example, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah poetically related our desire to an invitation from God. Listen to how God wants to meet us in our quest:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat . 

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. 

Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live.1

Did you notice how God's invitation speaks through our desires? He names us "you who are thirsty"! Thirst, desire, is not something we should shamefully repress, but rather part of our identity that tells us we were made for God. Just as we would never feel shame for feeling thirsty on a hot day after an hour of yard work, we should not feel ashamed for the longing we have for more. Perhaps you "have it all" relative to the standards of the world, yet you are not content? Should you pour contempt on this discontent, this thirst, or listen to it as invitation to you from an infinite fountain to come to him and drink? Jesus Christ identified himself as the God who satisfies human thirst when he said:

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."2

God speaks with compassion to our dilemma. Through the prophet Isaiah, God also names us "you who have no money." God knows our desires and he understands that we do not possess the resources to satisfy our desires on our own. That's our dilemma. Thankfully, God invites us to come without deserving. God's invitation is clear in the efforts Jesus Christ made to earn a restored relationship with God for us through his perfect life, substitutional punishment, and miraculous resurrection. The way we can come to God without earning our relationship with him is through Jesus. 

God's relationship to human desires actually serves as a way to summarize the whole human experience. Men like Augustine, Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, and recently John Piper have made this an anchor to their understanding of life. For example Augustine, in his Confessions:

Forbid it, O Lord, put it far from the heart of thy servant, who confesses to thee--far be it from me to think I am happy because of any and all the joy I have. For there is a joy not granted to the wicked but only to those who worship thee thankfully--and this joy thou thyself art. The happy life is this--to rejoice to thee, in thee, and for thee. This it is and there is no other. But those who think there is another follow after other joys, and not the true one. But their will is still not moved except by some image or shadow of joy.2

Augustine found through his own trial and error that our desires, our thirst for joy, are only truly satisfied in knowing and worshipping God. As much as we still think we need other joys, the others joys are merely an "image or shadow of joy" that we find when our desire drives us to Jesus Christ.

John Piper explored this theme in his book Desiring God and in countless sermons. Towards the end of his ministry as a pastor in Minneapolis, Mn he summarized how desire, joy, and faith in God come together:

"God is the source of greatest happiness, and since he is the greatest treasure in the world, and since his glory is the most satisfying gift he could possibly give us, therefore it is the kindest, most loving thing he could possibly do — to reveal himself, and magnify himself and vindicate himself for our everlasting enjoyment. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11)."4

How can we take this discussion from poetic pondering to our lives today? The last phrase of the Isaiah passage, "Give ear, come to me; listen, that you may live" gives you a practical challenge. The challenge is to listen. Listening to God through scripture reading and teaching can help correct our interpretation of what God is telling us through our desires. In the busy part of Atlanta, GA where I live, the people who help others really find joy are the people who have learned to listen like this. 

References:
1. Isaiah 55:1-6
2. John 7:37-39
3. Confessions of Augustine
4. Sermon by John Piper