Kingdom Currency (3)

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37.3, 4

Don’t deny desire
It can sound a little “iffy” to some Christians to think that we are motivated above all else by the desire for pleasure. We tend to think of pleasure and desire primarily in sensual and material ways, and consider these to be somehow inherently evil or wrong. Thus, desiring pleasure doesn’t quite sound “right” to those who have chosen to follow Jesus.

But God promises to give us the desires of our heart. That being so, having a heart filled with desires must not be a bad thing, or else God would not encourage us to enjoy whatever it is we desire.

Of course, God’s promise to give us the desires of our hearts comes with qualifications. If we delight ourselves in Him, then He will give us the desires of our heart. Our desires are likely to go awry and to reflect the sensual and self-centered desires of the world unless our first and overarching delight is the presence of God, His grace, and His pleasure.

In other words, we must not deny the role of desire in our souls, in helping us to realize our full potential as beings made in the image of God. At the same time, we need to make sure our desires are rightly focused before we begin to seek them. If the pleasure we seek – the object of all our desires – is the pleasure of God Himself, then of course, God will give us as much of that as we desire.

The pleasure of His company
To be in the company of God, and to participate in Him, is to be completely immersed in grace. God, John reminds us, is love (1 Jn. 4.8). We have received the gift of eternal life, which is to know God and, thus, to know grace (Jn. 17.3). The promises God makes to us, which He has fulfilled in Jesus Christ and which He calls us to lay hold on, will enable us to “partake” of God (2 Pet. 1.4) –  to abide in Him, know His presence, share in His being and attributes, enter into His pleasure, and experience His glory. In God’s presence, David explained, are fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

When you delight in this, God will fill your bank account with all the grace you’ll ever need for abundant and fruitful living in His Kingdom economy.
But what is that like? What’s it like to partake of God? To know His pleasure and glory? We can only barely begin to describe this experience, because knowing the presence of God and the joy and pleasure that come with that is an experience more wonderful, mysterious, amazing, uplifting, hopeful, transforming, and secure than any words can describe. 

In the presence of God, as His Word illuminates us and His Spirit enlivens us, we experience a heightening of our souls. Our thoughts, affections, and values – everything that makes us truly spiritual people – are intensified, clarified, focused, and stimulated in thrilling, even ecstatic ways, that cause all other desires and pleasures to pale into insignificance. In God’s presence we experience terrifying fear, yet wondrous warmth and safety and holy acceptance. We are overwhelmed and almost crushed by the reality of God’s being, and, at the same time, we are lifted up and seated with Him in heavenly places of beauty, wonder, majesty, and power. We feel humble but exalted; out of place but perfectly at home; strangely lifted out of temporal reality into an eternal and unchanging realm and life. Our minds sparkle as spiritual insights collide, conjoin, expand, and swell; our hearts light up with excitement, joy, wonder, fear, and love; and all our priorities collapse into one continuous recitation, “Lord, it is good for me to be here!” We know we do not deserve to be here, basking in all this, but here we are, only by grace, and all in grace.                                                         

More of the same!
When we delight in God like this, when it is our highest pleasure to enter fully into His grace and enjoy the pleasure of His company and the mystery of His transforming glory – when we delight in God like this, all the desires of our heart will be for more of the same, more of His grace, more of His presence with and in and through us, more of His pleasure and glory, more of the time in every area and all the work of our lives.

If the people of Israel, as they returned to the land of promise, had understood this, if they’d really known that God’s glorious presence in their midst would bring them joy and pleasure they could otherwise never have known, they wouldn’t have wasted their strength and time indulging the pleasures of the flesh. And when they finally did return to God’s purpose for them, and began to seek His pleasure, then God provided for them all that they needed and more, just as He had promised.
Yet even then, the people were only beginning to learn what it meant to live within the divine economy, where grace is the currency by which they could become rich in the pleasure of the Lord.

For reflection or discussion
1.  What do we mean by desire? How does desire work in a person’s life?

2.  Why is desire a good thing? What can make desire not such a good thing?

3.  Do you think it’s important that people should understand where their desires are focused? How would you suggest they do that? Why?

Next steps – Transformation: Meditate on the phrase, “rich in the pleasure of the Lord.” When have you experienced this? Talk with some Christian friends about this idea? Is this real to you and to your friends? Should it be more real? More consistent?

T. M. Moore

This week’s ReVision study is Part 4 of a 10-part series, “The Kingdom Economy.” You can download “Kingdom Currency” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here. Start your day in the Word of God. Study with T. M. in our daily Scriptorium newsletter, as he walks us through the ongoing work of Christ in the book of Acts. You can subscribe to receive Scriptorium each day at 5:00 am Eastern, or go to the website to download each week’s study in a free PDF.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.