David, the man known as "a man after God's own heart", shares that if we will delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). David is a man that is full of passion, known as a warrior and a worshiper, he is a man acquainted with desire. Jesus most common question as people approached Him was in the form of, What do you want? Unlike the religious people of His day, Jesus not only awakened the deepest desires in men's and women's heart but He often challenged them to hunger and thirst more. You know you are in the company of people who are tapped into the Old Covenant (of rules and laws), when everything is about shoulds and shouldn'ts. People who live under the Old Covenant or religion are afraid of desire because if they stir up desire, then they believe it will stir up sin and then things will be out of control. People in this camp live in fear of their deepest desires, whereas Jesus and David invite us to desire but there is guidance. David encourages us to first have all of our desires come under the Greatest desire of our hearts, which is to worship and delight in the Lord. Jesus gives us the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37 because He knows us not because He is attempting to control us, "And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" I find it interesting that so many times, to the world, Christians are known for as to what they are against or what they don't do. The world seems to be fed up with a Christianity that kills desire, is controlling, and lacks passion. Maybe this isn't the real Christianity or the real Jesus, just maybe they have rejected the false Jesus that the Body of Christ has portrayed. Yet in Haggai 2:7 which prophesies of the coming Messiah it says, "and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts." Jesus truly is the Desire of All Nations, it does not say He is the controller or dictator of all nations but they deeply desire Him. I love how Jesus in the midst of ritual that was supposed to be rich with prophetic meaning of what was coming that had become empty ritual, stands up and gives a powerful invitation. "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink." (John 7:37) A very different invitation than the religious elite were giving in His day, or I dare say than religion is giving today. The religious invitation may go something like this, "All those who want to suppress, stuff, and control the raging inferno of desire within come sign up because we will show you how to become numb and lifeless like we are." If they would have just made this clear before we came to a certain church or religious group it would have saved us any number of years of frustration, slavish service, and ultimately heartbreak. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ is very different, God is not afraid of our deepest desires but actually invites us to bring them to Him, so that they can be fulfilled.
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