Typically when you hear someone talking about wanting something it has a negative connotation to it. The idea that wanting is bad and you need to replace want with contentment. Wanting, longing and desire are vehicles that create focus and action.
I think we can all relate to seeing something new and wanting to have it. Looking up reviews and the different versions that are out there, looking to find the right one to buy. After a few sessions of research we have decided which one we would buy, if we were going to buy it. The problem with “if we were going to buy it,” is that we have gone through the process of creating desire and now we can’t stop thinking about the thing we were once just interested in, but now feel like we have to have.
If you have experience with this process then I have good news for you, you know how to create desire.
It’s possible to grab hold of an incorrect understanding of “contentment” that causes us to become complacent and board. We live nice quiet lives, but these lives don’t produce fruit and they are void of impact and influence.
Desire creates a gravitational pull, that launches us into action. Desire is a longing and a craving for the object of your focus. When we are board and absent of vision our desires come from the things we use to entertain ourselves. But the whiffs and glimpses we get of identity, purpose and vision, are the objects that are meant to fuel our focus.
Jesus said it like this in John 15:7-8
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
The object of your focus becomes your desire. You need a good want in your life. The object of your want, that springs from belief and the continual cultivation of the truth is the very thing Jesus wants to give you. Jesus is bent on bring glory to the father. The splendor of the father is represented in you. Your God given potential realized in the world produces fruit that displays his splendor.
What do you want?