My Heart's Desire

Several years ago I had the opportunity for the trip of a lifetime.  Lisa graciously allowed me to do something I have never done—go on a football trip with some of my best friends.  We flew to Green Bay, WI to watch the Packers play the Dolphins on Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field.  There are several things about this trip that were exciting; first, I had never been to a Monday Night Football game.  Second, I had never been to Green Bay.  Third, to get tickets to a Packers’ Game at Lambeau Field are next to impossible.  The reason for this is there are people who have grown up in Green Bay and never gotten a ticket.  The stadium seats around 65,000 in a town of 95,000 with another 105,000 in the surrounding communities.  People keep their season ticket options in their family and will them to the next generation.  The woman seated in front of us was the daughter of a former player for the Packers.  Her father played in the old stadium back in the 1920’s and their tickets had been in their family ever since then.  Green Bay treats their team more like a college setting.  Everywhere you look, you see green and gold.  They live, eat, and breathe Packer football.  They have an insatiable appetite for football, but even greater appetite for this team. 

Another thing I noticed after the game was the amount of empty beer bottles throughout the stadium.  In all my times at sporting events, professional and college, I have never seen so many empty beer bottles in my life.  It literally was a sea of empties.  One would have thought they were at a beer festival.  It was quite evident; they had an insatiable appetite for beer.  In fact, I determined after attending that game that many of the fans had an insatiable appetite for their Packers, their Bratwurst, and their beer. 

This experience made me start thinking about that for which I had an appetite.  What is there that I truly love and long for?  What is the thing which I, as many people put it, “live for?”  Moses addressed this issue in the book of Deuteronomy when he said, “Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart…” (Deut. 8:2)  This is another way of saying God wanted to test the children of Israel to see what the most important thing in their lives was, in who did they put their confidence, trust, and devotion, and what they lived for.  He wanted to know if they would be faithful to obey His every command.

In the next verse of chapter eight Moses continues by saying, “He (God) humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut. 8:3)  God wanted the children of Israel to know that the very thing which they must live for is God’s Word, His commands, His directives, and His instructions. 

Often this is a question which people ask me; how do I know God’s will for my life?  How do I know what God is telling me to do?  In order to answer these questions we must consider a tremendous message which I heard Chuck Swindoll offer several years ago.  Swindoll said that as followers of Jesus Christ, in order to know God’s directives, we must do five things in regards to His Words.  We must HEAR it (sermons, Bible lessons, etc…), READ it (taking the Word in for ourselves), STUDY it (analyzing the meaning and application), MEMORIZE it (retaining it in our minds for quick recall), and MEDITATE on it (think it over in our minds on a continual basis). 

When we come to the point where we are practicing these five things effectively in our lives then we are more prone to allow God to be that for which we have an insatiable appetite.  The Word of God is not like a favorite food item which we may tire of if we eat it too much.  In fact, the Word of God is more likely to become something we desire more of the more we consume.  If we desire to have God and His commands as that for which we live then we must continually ingest His Word into our lives.  Why not try to go against the trend in America of the 81% who do not read their Bibles on a daily basis?  This next week set a goal to read His Word every day. 

 

Read It, Live It, Love It---God’s Word,

 

Pastor Ric

Ps. 119:11