MEN: YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE THE WANT-TO

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.'”  (Matthew 16:24 NIV)

Most members of my generation are familiar with the classic Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The lyrics may indeed speak truth in the world of human relationships and romantic love. We can’t always get what we want, but we might manage to get what we need if only we try hard enough. Tenacity pays off. Fair enough.

In the arena of spiritual growth, however, wanting turns out to be a fundamental prerequisite for making any progress at all. When our wanting lines up with God’s intention, that combination adds up to one powerful recipe. When the heartfelt longing of Christian men is the desire to walk in God’s way, look out, world! In that case, what we want is most certainly and powerfully what we are going to get.

For Christian men, wanting is absolutely the most critical variable in the equation. God will never force His hand if we fail to own the desire. Coercion is not in God’s nature, and bullying is not in His game plan. The Lord of the universe has always been gracious to respect the choices we make.

The ball is in our court. “You’ve got to have the want-to” may be a worn cliché in religious vernacular, but it turns out to be a powerful truth. In practice a large enough dose of want-to adds up to an enormously effective tool on the infrequently traveled road of ongoing spiritual formation. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” 

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OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”  (Psalm 84:2 NIV)

There is a restlessness deep within each of us that compels us to search for the person, the place, the job, the "god" that will fill the void and give us peace.  This restlessness drives us to find someone who will love us for who we are, understand our fears and anxieties, affirm our worth, and call our lives into account.  To admit our need for and dependence upon God requires humility and vulnerability, which paves the way not only for knowing God, but also for becoming intimate with Him.  "Mutual love and confidence are the keys to intimacy," writes J. Oswald Sanders; "deepening intimacy with God is the outcome of deep desire." 

-- Cynthia Heald in “Intimacy with God”

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REST IN GOD’S LOVE

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”  (1 John 4:16 NIV)

Rest in God's love as if it were the very food of your soul. In truth, it is. If you cannot feel or believe this love, pray for its assurance as if your life depended on it. In truth, it does. Allow your heart to reconnect with its deepest desire, your soul-deep desire for God.

-- Rev. Marjorie Thompson in “Leading from the Center Newsletter”

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LOOKING FOR GOD

“O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  (Psalm 63:1)

Most men and women live lives of quiet desperation. But that's where we come in! It is our happy task to point out that every human desire is nothing less than a desire for God. Every impulse, every longing, every lust, every cry of the heart is but a cry after Him. "Even when men knock on the door of a brothel," Chesterton said, "they are looking for God." We are born for God's love and nothing else will do.

-- David Roper in “Seeing Through”

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