I want to win the Lottery! No I don’t, yes I do, no I don’t, yes…no!, maybe? In my town there are lottery ads on every billboard, sometimes the pot gets up to $350 million dollars! What in the world would someone do with 350 million dollars? We haven’t a clue. But our desire is to win the lottery. It would solve all my problems. I could buy a new car and never worry about it breaking down and not having the money to fix it. I could go to the grocery store and not have to pinch pennies or hand over any coupons. I could go on dream vacation after dream vacation. We would figure out a way to spend it. But do I really want to win the lottery? We’ve all heard story after story of how people who have actually won the lottery have ruined their lives. It has destroyed marriages instead of strengthening them, it has caused family relationships to get worse not better, all that money makes people do things they would never have done. Most of the money is just wasted. Studies have shown that many people who win the lottery end up broke and lonely. But that would never happen to me…right. Winning the lottery probably would destroy my life.But because I still have this desire to win the lottery, I am forced to examine my desires. Each day I have different desires. Here are some that I have had lately:• I want a new car• I want a house on a lake• I want a super vacation to Acadia National Park (our family is going but I really don’t have quite enough money and I’m worried I will come back with a big VISA bill)• I want to accomplish something great and have everybody know about it• I want to go on a trip to the Holy Land• I want a perfectly manicured lawnThe list could go on and I am sure that you have some things you have been thinking about lately as well. But, what I was created to desire does not match up with these earthly desires. I struggle each day to desire the things that God wants me to desire rather than my own personal lusts. I believe we can find out what God wants us to desire from studying the Scriptures. I decided to test this idea this morning. I said, “I’m going to read Ephesians 1 and find out if it says anything about what God desires for me to desire. Here are a few things I found:• God wants me to desire to be faithful to Christ• To desire experiencing peace with God through Jesus• To desire spiritual blessings from heaven (not from earth)• To desire holiness• To desire the riches of his grace (not the riches of the lottery)• To desire an eternal inheritance (not an earthly one)• To desire to love the saints• To desire to give thanks• To desire prayer• To desire a spirit of wisdom• To desire Christ’s power exhibited through my life for his glory (not my own)I can’t wait to continue to pour over the Scriptures and find out more desires that God has for me. The earthly desires of what I want need to be replaced with the heavenly desires that God wants me to have. I was created this way. My desires need to be God-centered not self-centered. I truly believe my life will be rich and full and satisfying if I desire what God has in store for me rather than what the lottery can buy at the store for me.All for Jesus,Fletch
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