Godly Desires

As a Christian, I have found it easier to live by aligning my goals with God’s goals. The trouble in doing this is that it is easier said that done. Too often, I expect things to be the other way around. Yet in the few times, I have managed to align my aims with God's aims and my wishes with his, I find myself more harmonious and less depressed. We all have godly desires. We want to be godly parents, we want to be godly spouses, we want to be godly bosses, godly practitioners of our professions. As parents and spouses, we want a happy and harmonious home. As bosses and professionals, we want congeniality and concord in our working environment. As good Christians, we want a church environment that will help us to grow, manifest our gifts and serve one another. These are godly desires but the truth is that there is no guarantee they will bear fruit. And despite having godly desires, we become a repository of frustration, bitterness and resentment at the people around us because they are ‘responsible’.

However, if we aim to be the spouse or the professional or the mother or father or Christian that God wants us to be, I believe we stand a better chance. This is also a godly desire but, unlike the ones mentioned earlier, this is not impossible. Why do I say that? God desires to build us into a person after his own heart. And if that is God’s desire for us, then surely it must happen! There is one stumbling block, however, to this desire of God. This obstacle is our own self. Nothing is impossible with God until it meets our own unsurrendered will. But if we cooperate with God, success is guaranteed.

Our main problem in life is that we expect our circumstances to change to suit us but never the other way around. We expect our spouses to be loving, we expect our children to be obedient, we expect our bosses and colleagues to be understanding and our fellow Christians to be Christ-like. Then we go berserk when they are not. Circumstances like these do not block us from our aim to be the person that God wants us to be. Instead, they are tests to our commitment to be the person that God wants us to be.

There will always be difficulties, struggles and trials in our lives as long as we are on this side of heaven. Yet, it is in such times of crisis like this that Christ-like character is needed. Why not then make the choice to depend on God’s grace to respond with Christ-like character even if the other party does not? In a domestic spat, why not respond to your spouse with greater acceptance instead of defending yourself? If your children are giving you a hard time, why not respond with a higher love instead of criticizing them? If your colleagues and bosses pick on you, why not respond with kindness instead of backbiting back at them. And when your fellow Christians let you down, which happens many times? Continue to reach out to them and do not give up anyway. These difficulties are opportunities for God to mold your character. So if your aim is, and I am sure it is, to be the person that God wants you to be, why not cooperate with God’s molding?

Become the person that God wants you to be. No one can block it but you.