Navigating Your Desires

understanding the difference between your earthly desires vs. your spiritual desires

i am currently working through a series on Spiritual Disciplines. this is a concept i learned from John Mark Comer’s work, and have since personally applied it to my spiritual walk over the past couple of years. it has made a lasting impact on my relationship with God and it’s something i never want to take for granted.

but… even with all the work i put in to maintain a solid relationship with Him, i still find myself struggling to want to keep up with all of these spiritual habits.

that’s what i want to talk about today.

society is so obsessed with only doing things you feel like doing in a specific moment, without being able to differentiate between desires. it’s critical to remember that our strongest desires are not our deepest desires.

i hesitate to use food as an example, as it can be triggering for people. i’m also someone who is all about food freedom and moderation (80/20 babyyy), but just for the sake of simplicity, i’m going to roll with it.

say our deepest desire is to cut out processed carbs, but our strongest desire in a certain moment is eating chocolate cake three times a week, so… rather than remembering our deepest desire, we eat the cake.

our deepest desire is to make whole food meals at home, but our strongest desire in another moment is to just order takeout. so… we order takeout.

it’s important to note that both of these desires are authentic to who we are and what we want, but we need to discern and lean into what is actually of the most benefit for our wellbeing.

is it the chocolate cake? no.

although… i guess sometimes it just might be… maybe once a week… but most of the time, no.

our society has labeled discipline as a “bad word”. if we’re disciplined, it means we’re too restrictive. however, i would argue that without discipline we are slowly ruining ourselves as we’re becoming a slave to our shallow, earthly desires.

to take a heavier example: say you indulge in porn because you feel neglected from your spouse. what is the deeper desire? to address the neglect you’re experiencing. but instead of leaning into what you know is the better option, you settle for the strongest desire you’re experiencing in that moment. watching porn.

before you know it, you’re addicted to porn. now you have a much bigger problem…

finally to bring it all back to our spiritual habits, even though i’m sure you already understand where i’m going with this.

say you’re in a really good rhythm with your Spiritual Disciplines. you’re practicing Sabbath every week, you wake up excited to read your Bible, you’re taking prayer walks every evening, life is good and you’re feeling God all the time.

but then… slowly… you find yourself uninspired. you find yourself avoiding your Bible reading, or skipping your prayer walk. suddenly Sabbath Sunday has become football Sunday. God doesn’t seem to be showing up quite as often…

what do you do?

well… you need ask yourself,

what is my deepest desire?

is it to grow in relationship with God, even when it doesn’t seem to be making the same impact?

or…

is it to live a life of ease and doing things “just when i feel like it”. you’ll get back to Sabbath eventually. it’s just for a little while.

i can’t answer this question for you, but i would love to assume the former as the deepest desire of your soul. to pursue spiritual formation into the likeness of God, and to lean into the habits that make this possible, even when it’s hard. even when you don’t feel like it…

if this is resonating with you and you happen to be in a season where you’re just not prioritizing the right things, take this as a gentle nudge to get back into the habits that nourish your soul.

find your unforced rhythms, and start anew tomorrow.

xx, mir