DAILY DEVOTIONAL – November 5, 2019
“All Your Desires”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You alone satisfy the desires of our heart. In Your love and mercy Lord, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for Yours is the Kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 145:13-19
[The Lord is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
Devotional: “All Your Desires”
There’s a story about a young man who was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car, and knowing his father could afford it, he told his dad on several occasions that it was all he wanted. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, the young man’s father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box.
Curious, but disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” The son then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible behind.
Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, and the car he always wanted, but realized his father was getting quite old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He hadn’t seen his father since that graduation day. But before he could make arrangements to see his ailing father, the young man received a phone call telling him his father had passed away, and that he needed to come home immediately to take care of things.
When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the Bible his father gave him, still new, just as he had left it years ago. With tears in his eyes, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages, when all of a sudden a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, and on the tag was the date of his graduation along with the words, “Paid In Full.”
How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? How many times have we suffered the consequences of insisting on doing things our way to get what we want because God’s answers to our prayers are not as convenient or expedient as we would have them be? I don’t know about you, but there have been more times than I would care to admit that I have looked back on circumstances and events in my life and realized only after I had made a mess of things just how many times God was trying to give me His good gifts and show me what I truly need; but I was too convinced of what was best for me…too insistent on my way and my time and my wants to see God’s clear hand of providence in my life. The Lord has been so graciously patient with me, forgiving me of my stubbornness so that I would come to learn and trust what David says in our text for today from Psalm 145,
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
While you and I are blind to see what tomorrow will bring, God sees all things and knows all things and so He is the only One who can know what it is we need, when we need it and how we should receive it. Not only does God know what is best, but He wants to give us only the things that are best for us. He desires only to love us. As David continues to say in Psalm 145,
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
You know friends, if someone handed you the keys to a beautiful looking car that was the perfect color scheme, had seats that perfectly conformed to your body, rocked a kickin’ sound system and had all of the latest and most convenient technologies…but they told you that the car only starts 50% of the time at best, and when it does run more often than not it stalls out unpredictably…would you take it? I would hope not. But you know, I am willing to bet that like me, no matter how many times doing things our way or getting what we want has proven unreliable or completely unsatisfying, our sinful nature still is convinced we know what’s best.
The truth is friends, if we really desire the best things in life, we need to trust in God’s generous heart, and in God’s timing and in God’s ways. Our most gracious God has already given us the most precious blessing of all in the blood of His only Son Christ who has provided for our salvation and redemption through His death and resurrection. It is because our Lord Jesus rose from the dead just as God promised us He would, that we should believe and know for certain that whatever God gives to us and whenever and however He chooses to give it to us, that it will lead to what is best for us and will give us what we ultimately need, even when it may not appear that God is giving us what we want.
The Lord never promised to grant us the desires of our heart, because our hearts are wrought with sin and selfishness. There are many times I can look back and thank God that He did not answer my prayers! God has promised, however, that when we look to Him and desire only His presence and purpose in our life…when God is what we want and who we want and all we want…our desires will be fulfilled without fail. As David says in verse 18 and 19 in Psalm 145:
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
What we need more than anything, and what we truly want deep down in the depths of our soul, is to know that we are forgiven and to know that we can look with hope and joy to that day when all of us are called into account before our Maker and Creator. What good is anything else, what blessing does anything else provide if it will all be eternally lost to sin and death?
The Good News of the Gospel my friends is that God has given us what we really want and what we really need…WHO we really need…He has given us His Son Jesus. He is who our hearts long for. He is what and who we want and need. As Scripture says in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
I think the message I am trying to give you today can be best communicated through the words of one of my most favorite hymns:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Turn your eyes upon Jesus my friends, settle for nothing and no one less than Him, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
