Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Psalms 37:3-7
One of the biggest misunderstandings in various church circles, is this idea that when God says He will give you the desires of your heart, that those desires were yours to begin with, and that He delights to grant the desires you came up with, that somehow it was you who put them there.
Many have a selfish view of this verse in the Psalms such that they will act like children who didn’t get their way when what they named and claimed and spoke of it’s reality even though it wasn’t.
I woke up August 7th, 2020, with an illustration going through my mind, with God as the parent and we as His child looking to Him for provision in some area.
God hands us a cereal bowl. We grasp onto that cereal bowl and start dancing around the room. Yes! God is bringing me cereal! I claim that right now! But Scripture tells me to be specific, so I declare when that cereal comes, it will be maple-flavoured raison bran cereal! Yes, my God loves me enough to give me my absolute favourite flavour! I declare this bowl is filled with maple-flavoured raison bran, full to overflowing as the Scriptures say!
God is standing there watching this behaviour. But He’s shaking His head a little and now He must wait. Yes, cereal was definitely on it’s way, but God had a far yummier cereal in mind when He handed me that bowl. That bowl was a portender of things to come for sure, it was proof that my desire for cereal wasn’t wrong, but in God’s hearing I was now seeking to manipulate the circumstances to my favour. It was my favourite flavour I wanted and was declaring I’d receive. Was there any thought there of the type of cereal God might want for me? Was there any thought that this bowl of cereal might not even be eaten by me? No, none of that. The bowl had been given to ME therefore all my hopes and declarations were centered around ME! Yes, God had to back off from grabbing the cereal box, and wait till I calmed down and wanted what He wanted for that bowl.
Now, some of us in that situation begin to figure that it’s up to us to fill that bowl, so we go looking for the cereal box. We don’t find it, so we figure we have to go buy it. We learn the price tag and start working to earn the money to buy that box of cereal so we can come home and fill the bowl. God might even let us earn the funds to buy that box of cereal but when we fill the bowl and sit down to eat, it tastes like so much cardboard! This isn’t at all what we thought the bowl would be filled with. We’re left hungry hardly an hour after we eat, so we try harder. Still, God waits.
God has to wait until we stop our striving, stop our selfish efforts, drop our selfish focus, and return to Him asking how to fill the cereal bowl He’d given us. At that point, He reminds us that we did not get that bowl out of the cupboard, He did. We didn’t place it in our own hands, He placed it in our hands. Therefore, we must be patient and wait to see what God chooses to fill it with. But He couldn’t fill that bowl while we were carrying it all over the place with us frantically and tiresomely trying to fill it ourselves. We stop our striving, but now we’re worried.
How is this bowl going to be filled? Why did God give me an empty bowl if He wasn’t going to fill it? At least now we recognize Who gave us the bowl.
God says in Matthew:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Matthew 7:7-11
Now we change tactics, we start begging and pleading, we start asking non-stop. We remind ourselves not to give up, to keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking. We turn over every cushion in the house, we look in every dark corner seeing if we can find that elusive box of cereal that we know must be out there somewhere. After all, God’s Word says if you ask, seek and knock, you will receive. We’re off exhausting ourselves again and once again, God waits for us to stop our striving. He waits for us to change our focus, again, back to Him. Eventually, a little-known truth must be whispered in our ear, a truth most teachers seem to conveniently overlook in their lists of steps to make God say yes and fill our bowl with maple-flavoured raisin bran.
This tiny truth is wrapped up in some harsher, more troubling revelations that each of us must face and examine before we can ask for God’s yes, let alone His other answers.
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
James 4:1-8
Lust today is typically defined as a sexual desire, but other definitions echo those used in this passage:
Noun:
– a passionate or overmastering desire or craving (usually followed by for):
– a lust for power.
– ardent enthusiasm; zest; relish:
– an enviable lust for life.
Obsolete.
– pleasure or delight.
– desire; inclination; wish.Verb:
– to have a yearning or desire; have a strong or excessive craving (often followed by for or after).
You will notice another word that is used both in James’ passage as well as in these dictionary definitions: envy.
Lust and envy are closely linked, and are directed by one underlying focus: Me! We can become obsessed with the look, smell, flavour, and euphoria obtained from eating that amazing maple-flavoured raisin bran! God makes all things good does He not? Surely He won’t deny me one of life’s amazing pleasures!
But look just a couple sentences into this passage. God won’t bless a squandering, selfish, hoarding spirit. We want that bowl of cereal all to ourselves, to relish every single tiny spoonful to make it last as long and savour it for as great a duration as possible. But God had other plans for that bowl in my hand. He waits some more. We’re standing there in the kitchen again wondering if God will EVER fill this bowl and thinking that now there must be something wrong with us. In one way, we’re not wrong at this point, but we often engage in the more destructive of the two options facing us. We start going to all the nutritionists and dietitians digging into the finer details of maple-flavoured raisin bran cereal. If God doesn’t grant a snake for a fish, then maybe we’ve been wrong the whole time and need to consider another cereal? A healthier cereal perhaps? We become experts in cereals and discover an entire bowl of bran might be overkill and not healthy for us, so we return to God asking for just half a bowl, or a third of a bowl. We know He could fill the whole bowl, but we are humbly asking now for just a third, half if God is feeling generous.
God continues to wait. Now we’re in tears, our bowl remains empty after everything we’ve tried. We go to shift our position, step in our puddle of tears and slip. The bowl flies out of our hands and hits the floor, smashing everywhere.
This is horrible! How could God let this happen?! We were told He was a good God! God reaches down to gather the pieces, but we dive between Him and the shards, gathering them into a pile and angrily, tearfully tending a cut we received while getting between Him and them. He backs up and waits. He offers to tend the cut, but we’re busy sucking on it, giving ourselves a tummy ache in the process, but the bleeding won’t stop.
Finally in non-stop tears, we let Him bandage our self-inflicted wound, and He rocks us gently on His lap once more. He wipes our tears, we begin to calm down, and He floods us with His peace again. We look up, see the pile of shards and the tears threaten again, so we bury our head in His chest. At that point we hear His heart beating. Softly, rhythmically, and our breathing and heart rate begin to match His as we soak in His love for us. He begins murmuring His Word over us, reminding us of His promises. We cry out for healing now, because those verses touch raw areas not yet whole, and He touches those areas to bring us to that place of wholeness. He asks if He can pick up the broken pieces of the bowl and finally we let Him. We watch as He puts it back together more beautiful than it was before and He hands it back to us. . . full!
We are now in shock! The cereal bowl is gleaming, but it’s contents are anything BUT maple-flavoured raison bran. There is almond cranberry granola in there, and a small umbrella toothpick with a name on it. We turn the umbrella to read the name and discover someone we know who would absolutely LOVE this cereal! We hop off God’s lap and go running next door to deliver the yummy treat! The neighbour invites me to sit down with them and share in their cereal bowl as they eat, and we enjoy fellowship around God answering their request that they had been spending months in prayer for. You see, their desire for almonds and cranberries was related to a health need, and this granola cereal had the right mix of necessary ingredients to ensure this person’s health could be maintained.
That cereal bowl God gave me was never for my own wants and wishes. It was intended to be shared with others to meet their needs and bring joy in so doing.
Thus ends the tale of The Cereal Bowl
Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Psalms 37:3-7
