STEWARDING DESIRE

Stewardship is one of the virtues we see and learn throughout Scripture. Stewardship is gaining mastery over what you have been entrusted with tending it, developing it, and bringing it into its intended purpose without wastage . This reminds me of prophet Isaiah speaking concerning the Messiah he said " God's pleasure would PROSPER in his hands ."

He meant ,Jesus would steward the Fathers will till it's completely complete and nothing would fail in His hands because he wasn't going to abandon the mission for pleasure or convinence.

The book of Ephesians reminds us that we are God's dwelling place by His Spirit and that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Being His temple comes with an expectation that we keep and tend what He has entrusted to us because he also helps us do that through the sufficiency of His grace .

But stewardship is not only about the physical. We are also called to shepherd and steward our souls by the renewing of our minds through the Word.

And today, I want us to look at one aspect of the soul: desire.

Desire is innately woven into us by God. We were created with the capacity to long, to pursue, to delight, to hunger, and to seek. But God does not just  want us to have desires that lead us to leaning on our own understanding ,He desires that our desires are stewarded according to His intent.

David puts it beautifully in Psalm 37:

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Psalm 37:4

Often, we  interpret this scripture as meaning that God has the responsibility of meeting all our hearts desires.

But perhaps we ought to pay attention to the order.

Delight yourself in the LORD.

The delight comes first.

As we delight ourselves in Him, He becomes the object of our affection and inclination,the source of our satisfaction, and the One who shapes our desires. We are brought to the place where what we desire is increasingly aligned and conformed to what He wants for us.

The promise is not simply that God will supply every desire we naturally have. It is that as we delight in Him, our hearts are being formed to incline to His will for us that what we desire not only looks like His but is also from Him .

David gives us another beautiful picture in Psalm 42:

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

Panting is a deep longing, a deep thirst for something and so here is something beautiful about the deer. 

It has a strong sensory system within it which helps it detect danger and navigate its environment , its pursuit of water becomes especially significant in dry and difficult terrain.

It been created with acuity senses that  influences where it goes either for safety or to quench it's thirst.

What a picture for the child of God.

There must be a posture in us where our inclinations and desires are shepherded by our need for God Himself  and not only our desire for what He can give us, but being with Him 

Stewarding desire is yielding yourself to Him.

Stewarding desire is delighting yourself in Him for the. does He teach your heart what satisfies it's longing.

Stewarding desire is learning to say no to what would entice and entangle your soul to ungodliness.

Stewarding desire is allowing your soul to rest in God alone .

DAILYWELL-PEACE ✨