Wellspring Group

A Wellspring Word: Desires

Deep desires are the deepest longings of the human heart. They flow from the image of God within us, so they can only be fully satisfied in union with the God who created us.

Deceptive desires are surface desires we mistakenly believe will fully satisfy a deep desire.

Surface desires are desires that are most easily identified. They can be material, positional, relational, or experiential. They are helpful in connecting us to deeper desires.

As a young girl, I reduced Psalm 37:4 to an equation: if I do my part + God does his part = my desires are met.

Matthew Henry cuts to the heart of what I missed: "To delight in God is as much a privilege as a duty. He has not promised to gratify the appetites of the body, and the humours of the fancy, but the desires of the renewed, sanctified soul. What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It is this, “to know, and love, and serve God."

Essentially, the desires of my heart are met in knowing the love of God and living out who He created me to be. It is in relationship, connection, with God that my heart’s desires are fulfilled and reveal His heart to the world.

It is tempting to look to the world or our own strength to satisfy our desires. We see this clearly with Eve in the garden. Eve saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom — good, delightful, desirable.

Nothing wrong with any of it, on the surface. But the deeper desire, to be like God, was already hers. Created perfect, whole, connected to the very One in whose image she was made, yet a distortion of truth from an enemy persuaded her to trade what was already hers for a lesser fruit.

What desires stir in your heart and make you believe they’ll make you whole? And if you had it, what would it actually give you?

- Abby Mandella, Executive Director of Wellspring