Journey into Lightl

I was desperate. I wanted relief from my daily neck pain that I had endured for three years.

I had tried everything that I knew of to find relief. I went to doctors, chiropractors, an acupuncturist, a muscle-building trainer, and a physical therapist. Nothing helped. My pain continued.

In my desperation, I turned to the Internet and began looking under the topic of neck pain. My research indicated that a doctor had written a book that claimed to possibly explain why I had neck pain and how to make it stop.

As I read the book, I thought that what he said made some sense, but it sounded weird. But I was desperate enough and willing to give most anything a try.

So, I tried his approach-and it worked! Within three months the pain went away. That was six years ago. The pain has never returned, except for brief stretches when I applied the teachings of the book and escaped the pain once again.

If I had not been so desperate, I would have been satisfied to go to a chiropractor or doctor the rest of my life and gut my way through life getting temporary relief at best. But I was desperate enough to try something new. Something that many others and I would think was weird. But it worked and I am pain-free today!

And so it is with our relationship with God. He longs to be longed for. But only desperate souls will long for him. Why?

Mainly because we have found false ways to get our needs met without longing for him. However, these false ways never satisfy. “And the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19)

We are not desperate enough. We become complacent choosing to become friends with the world rather than risk relying on God to come through for us (James 4:4).

Look at Israel. When they were desperate, they prayed with all their hearts to God. And he delivered them from their miserable situations.

But when they grew complacent and returned to being friends with the world their pain returned. However, when they became desperate enough to risk trusting God again and prayed earnestly, God delivered them. This cycle was repeated over and over again (Judges 6-21).

So, how do we become desperate enough?

One thing we can do is to pray earnestly that we would “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). We can pray that we would not become complacent with our status quo but be desperate enough to seek a more abundant life that he promises us. “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Not only can we pray to long for God, but also pray that we will make him our top priority in our actions- to learn how to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

May we be desperate enough to trust him to help turn us away from “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16), so that we can embrace his joy, his peace, and his love.

Ask God today to help you become desperate enough in one area of your life to trust him to help you take the next step toward a deeper relationship with him.