How quickly we begin to crave other food. We are beings of substantial appetites, yet we are so quick to exaggerate our physical needs beyond the point of reason in response to an overflowing and seemingly never-ending stream of temptation that surrounds and rises from within us on a daily basis. Ever so quickly we overlook the provision given us in exchange for the desires that escape us. We turn up our noses at a healthy piece of fruit filled with vitamins and nutrients that provide our bodies with strength and energy, while leaping at the opportunity to devour a snack that has little to offer our bodies nutritionally but effectively satisfies a craving of the mind. We are beings so quick to want and so quick to forget what we have. We are beings so susceptible to the influence of others that in the blink of an eye we turn our backs on that which has given us much and redirect our eyes on something that has given us nothing at all.
All too often we forget the numerous ways that God has blessed our lives because we allow our eyes to wander away from him and on to the lives of others that surround us. We overshadow his provision in our own lives because we find ourselves obsessed by how he is providing in the life of someone we know. As quick as we are to beg for his provision we are equally quick to indulge jealousy of someone else’s provision. We are much like a child on Christmas morning who receives a gift and rejoices, until the next gift is opened and the joy becomes bitterness and jealousy. This typically has nothing to do with the gift itself. It arises out of the craving for something you don’t have but that you don’t necessarily need or even want. The astonishing thing about this tendency is that God does not withhold provision upon seeing it. God is so ready to be seen that he not only receives these ridiculous complaints with grace and understanding but then responds to our requests in a way that only he will be noticed and glorified. God is so in tune with what we need and what we can handle that the reason there is ever a withholding of anything in our lives is that we are not quite ready for it.
However, if receiving what we ask for, regardless of our inability to handle our request, ultimately redirects our eyes back to the Father that knows best, God allows us to crave, reach and take hold of that which has the power to destroy us. In the near destruction brought about by our own hands at the impulse of our own wills are we then able to see the weakness of our own hearts and the strength of his. Our prayers should never be to ask God for what we think we need or feel we want. Our prayers should be to ask God for what we are ready to receive. Only in committing our desires to his will we come into a life that is abundant in the good things that can help us and avoid the things that have the power to destroy us.
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