What Your Unanswered Desire Says About God’s Love for You
To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy endureth forever. Psalm 136:16
When was the last time that you experienced a great unfulfilled desire?
Maybe you had a desire to obtain a particular job, move to a particular state, make a particular amount of money, live without a particular physical pain, or marry a particular person. You wanted it so much that your soul felt hungry. You lay awake at night dreaming—and worrying—about what would happen if you couldn’t get your desire met and you wondered what would happen if God didn’t say yes to your prayer. You may have even wondered what this desire, ungranted, would say about His love for you.
We all experience these unfulfilled desires, “Deuteronomy 8:2-3”. In this passage, God is speaking about His people as they wandered in the desert.
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”
In this passage, we see how God used their physical longing for food to do a spiritual work in their lives. He leveraged something material to do something immaterial. Sometimes the Lord does the same with us. He will use a physical or emotional desire we long for to draw us to the only place we know we can go for relief. . . straight to Him. Sometimes God doesn’t give us what we want so He can give us what we need.
This is a magnificent truth! Remember this: during times of longing, an absence of God’s provision for what we desire is not proof of a lack of His love. In fact, it may be proof of His very active involvement in our lives.
A well very prominent preacher in his day (C.S. Lewis) once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Ah, yes. Not only is pain (even the kind associated with an unfulfilled longing) God’s megaphone, it’s what He uses to give us what we truly need and what will create ultimate satisfaction. It’s a way He shouts “You would not believe how much I love you!” It’s a way He proves what is in our hearts.
“For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” (Deuteronomy 2:7)
Prayer
Lord, I praise you that just because you haven’t given me what I want doesn’t mean you don’t love me. Please help me so that these trials do a good work in me. Let me allow them to draw me to you and not away from you. Amen.
Application
Make a list of the great desires you currently have—and those you have had in the past. Make note of how God’s answer regarding each affected your relationship with Him. Then pray, asking Him to help you stay close to Him during those times when you are longing for something you don’t have.
Related Readings
Exodus 16:4; James 1:3; 1 Peter 1:7
