Desire | Elissa Branum

DESIRE: to long or hope for.

This isn’t a word we use often anymore. But I really think it can be compared to the word “obsessed.”

If you are like me, you tend to get a little obsessed with things. You may have your focus stolen by music, fashion, makeup, movies, TV, friends, or guys (no particular order).

This is going to be major self-examination, so let me admit right now that I am personally convicted. But let’s take this a step further. Do any of these things describe you?

~You spend several hours in front of your TV or laptop watching shows and movies, but you can’t keep focused long enough to finish one devotional.
~You love listening to music, but you find secular lyrics seeping into your brain and causing you to feel dissatisfied (“why won’t any guy say those words to me?”).
~You love wearing makeup and cute clothes, but you don’t ever feel like you can own enough of the right styles to be beautiful and flawless.
~You spend more time texting, facebooking, kik-ing (everyone has this app, right?), or tweeting your friends than you spend praying (this is a personal kick-in-the-gut).
~You worry that finding the right guy is going to be impossible if you follow the “perfect Christian” model and wait on God.

These things are not, initially, wrong. However, once your focus is off God, you find yourself walking down a very dangerous road and you may not feel like you can ever return. We can term them as “sin” when they start separating us from God.

2 Timothy 2:22, one of my favorite verses, says, “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” There’s that word desire I wanted you to think about! Do you see its connection to our obsessions?

Paul is writing to a young man named Timothy. And since Timothy is a young guy, he is obviously faced with the same issues as we teenagers are (just because this was centuries ago doesn’t change the teenage brain!). Paul offered a godly solution—run! The only escape is to have nothing to do with this evil.

So how do we apply this to our problem with being too obsessed with everything but God?

We flee. We become willing to take time away from these distractions and simply be with God. I’m not saying we need 10 minutes in the morning sitting in a closet and meditating (not that there’s something wrong with that!). No, I’m saying we need to make a conscious effort to put Him first. We need to turn off the computer and read a page in our Bible. We need to put down the phone and journal about our hopes and fears, aimed as prayers to Him. We need to look in the mirror and realize that our physical flaws are not flaws in the eyes of the One who created us. We can stand still and know that the creator of everything knows enough about us to find us the perfect husband, if that’s in His plan for our lives.

And when we do this, we have successfully achieved freedom. Not because we are stronger than we were before, but because we obeyed His command. What if we fail and turn back to these things? That’s what confession and forgiveness are for (1 John 1:9).

And when we have freedom, something amazing happens.

We can “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Wouldn’t you like to feel and live and breathe all those things? Imagine the feeling of being surrounded by what is pure! If you call on His name, He will answer. Here’s another promise: Psalm 91:15, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

What are you waiting for? What I am waiting for? Let’s go out and flee evil and pursue Him. It’s the only desire that can be fulfilled.

***

My name is Elissa Branum . I’m 17 years old and I live in Arkansas. I’m going into my senior year of high school and I am planning on studying English Education in college. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and there is nothing I enjoy more than creating devotionals, essays, short stories, poems, and book reviews. Check out my everyday ramblings on my blog! http://elissanicole.blogspot.com/

Be Sociable, Share!

•