[ Friday, October 07, 2005 ]
Frustrated desire is a common experience for people. The book of James, from the Bible, talks about desire, often in a negative sense - "a person is tempted when he is enticed by his own evil desires..." "You pray for what you want, but you don't receive them because you ask with wrong motives"
But sometimes we desire something that is not evidently wrong. It's not materialistic, it's not ungodly... and still God does not grant it.
Does God ever deliberately place a desire in our hearts, then deliberately withhold the desire? And why, then, does he deliberately put us through this kind of suffering? Proverbs says "a hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul". Is it the sickness or the sweetness that God is ultimately trying to produce?
Mike [4:52 PM]
