Walking with the Wise #100: Our Greatest Desire

“The desire of the righteous ends only in good;
the expectation of the wicked in wrath.”
—Proverbs 11:23

God delights in those who delight in Him. And, if we find our delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart, as the Psalmist wrote,

“Delight yourself in the LORD,
and He will give you the desires of your heart”
—Psalm 37:4.

And what are the desires of our heart? Love? Power? Success? Acceptance? All of our desires merely point to our greatest desire—God Himself. C.S. Lewis put it this way,

"The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.' A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only... to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, echo, or mirage.

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to the other country and to help others do the same"—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 136-137.

Those who desire God intensely, and do what it is that He desires (which is delighting in Him), He will give them their fullest desire which is Himself. Not so with the wicked, the wicked will receive wrath—and a fearful expectation of judgment. As the author of Hebrews wrote,

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries”—Hebrews 10:26-27.

Are you finding your delight in God? Do you desire God more than your earthly desires? Or are you continuing in sin? If so, then know that judgment and wrath await! God will not be mocked! He has promised to thwart the expectation of the wicked and bless the righteous! May God enable us all to follow Him with unfettered hearts, fully devoted and focused on Him for His glory and our joy. Amen.