How to Get Desire in Religion

A good friend of mine recently shared with me that he is having a hard time "wanting" to grow deeper in his Christian walk. This friend is by all accounts a very earnest individual, someone who has walked with God for some time; someone who has seen God at work in his life. The question is a question of desire. How do we get ourselves to actually want more of God? When does this whole thing stop becoming a drudgery and actually start becoming a delight?

Any Christian reading this will likely sympathize and relate with this frustration. My introverted self frequently finds itself in hollow lulls where my emotions and desires are just not cooperating with what I am called to think and to do. How do we bring them up to speed? Can we actually expect the privilege of having our desires working in tandem with our duty?

Two Extremes:

There is the Pragmatist: grit your teeth and "do it, just do it" in blunt force fashion, irrespective of where year heart may be in the moment. We cannot expect emotions to ever be fully on board with the Christian duties, so we have to learn to proceed with the absence of them. Duties are duties, and our call to attend to them remains whether we feel like it at the moment or not.

While this old school "fake it 'till you make it" wisdom caters to our manly desires, it falls short. Emotions are fundamental to our being, and living outwardly in obedience while lacking any real internal desire to begin with is a major warning sign for hypocrisy. Pure pragmatism is mercenary in the extreme and will lead to a rather joyless life. Furthermore, our willpower is simply not as strong as we would like to admit, and sooner or later the lack of supporting desire will in most instances cause us to quit eventually.

Then, there is the Idealist: Wait for those ever fluctuating emotions to return to normal levels before we ever obey with a less than sincere motivation. Today we have elevated our internal feelings and emotions almost to the realm of personal identity. There is no sin greater in our world's eyes than doing something that is not according to who you are. Be yourself. Be true to who you are. This narrative has certainly seeped its way into the church, and many find that if our hearts are not into our obedience entirely, we had better not do it at all.

The problem with the idealist's take is it is largely unfeasible. If we only obey when we feel like obeying, we probably would not obey very much. And while this is a sure way to avoid outward hypocrisy--such devotion to the internals will likely lead to a volatile lifestyle which would be most unstable to ourselves as well as those closest to us.


A Better Third Choice


Is there a way that we can have both the devotion to our God of the pragmatist, while having the unity of spirit the idealist seeks? Yes. The problem with both views is they see the emotions as an unbending force which cannot be altered. The pragmatist strains forward hoping his emotions will correct. The idealist remains true to his emotions whether they correct or not. Neither actually look to correct the emotions and the desires themselves. But desires can be corrected, false emotions can be adjusted according to the truth.

David does this all the time in the Psalms. Psalm 42 is a great example as David's emotions are clearly lacking (vs. 9-10) and then him calling himself to the truth (vs. 11):

9. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”

10. My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

11. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

In verses 9-10 David gives free reign to his emotions. He does not burry them out of duty (as the pragmatist might), he frankly declares to God: "Why have you forgotten me?" And to himself: "Where is your God?" But he does not remain there in obedience to his all-powerful emotions (as the idealist might). Instead he calls them out. He preaches to them. He grabs himself by the hand and calls himself to put his hope according to the truth.

This "reflex" is something very common throughout the Psalms. We see David frankly admit his situation, his emotions, his doubts. But instead of either burying them or following them, David has this reflex that immediately calls himself to hope in the eternal.

Psalm 3 for instance--

The emotion: Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”

The reflex: But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.

And Psalm 22--

The emotion: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

The reflex: You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob,
honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

This model of: situations, circumstances, feelings being 1) stated freely and 2) called to the truth of who God is and what He has done--is displayed time and time again throughout the Psalms. If we are to avoid the pitfalls of the calloused pragmatist and the unstable idealist, we are going to have to master the art of preaching to ourselves the truth.

I will say there are times when a sermon to self is not enough. There is also a communal aspect to this keeping ourselves in check which is most necessary. One of my close friends and I text each other just about daily. We text rather honestly: how we are dong, what we are thinking and feeling, and what we are learning in the Scriptures or in other books we have been reading. This continual conversation helps to rekindle the flames of the emotions, to stir the coals so to speak, and has proven to be iron sharpening.

It is important for us to cultivate Christian relationships beyond the superficial Sunday morning conversations in order that we might never stand alone. Each of us need to have someone standing beside us who can help us keep those emotions in check.