“He gave them their request, but sent leanness to their souls.” Psalm 106:15 NKJV
“If you don’t have it and can’t afford it, maybe God knows that you don’t need it now.”
My thoughts today advise, “be careful what you ask for.”
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you felt you could “not live without it?” It is far too easy to confuse what you want with what you need. You need a few things. You want a lot of things, some at the wrong time, some just the wrong thing. Life is not best when you live as though you should have whatever you want, whenever you want it. You might think you would be happier if you had anything and everything that you want. You wouldn’t; life doesn’t work like that.
You won’t value and appreciate what comes too quickly or easily, as much as things for which you have to work and wait. An unprecedented affluence indulges an immediacy – an instant gratification – a former generation never knew. Whatever happened to the value of deferred gratification? Today people not only have to have the best, they now have to have the latest as well, without regard to the waste or expense.
“Right now” is not always better than “soon or later.” Our parents and grandparents saved for what they wanted rather than having the option to charge it. When did credit cards replace layaway? Are you better for that? You don’t need everything you think you have to have, and you don’t have to have everything you want.
Like ancient Israel, I fear there is a leanness of soul that has been the result of demanding to have what we would not first trust God to provide. If you don’t have it and can’t afford it, maybe God knows better than you that you don’t need it now. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures.” James 4:3 NIV.
This is no small matter in God’s view. I was stunned as I read aloud the blunt words of the verses before and after this one. God described this needless consumption and spending as an adulterous relationship with the world – seduced by a false lover – rather than prizing a pure devotion to God. Read James 4:1-10NIV. Where does all this start? “You want something but don’t get it!” vs. 2. (See Hebrews 13:5 NIV).
Debt allows people to rely on an unpredictable provider. Sadly, parents who cannot say no to themselves certainly cannot say no to their children and teens. And one generation’s debt addiction passes to the next, who simply adds to it, often not knowing any better than to do so. If you insist on obtaining by your own means what God does not supply, there is a leanness of soul that signals the absence of His blessing. Read Psalm 106:6-15 NKJV. Be careful what you ask for; you might get it.
I would rather have less with God’s blessing than to have more without it. Learn to trust this truth, “And with all His abundant wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs.” Philippians 4:19 Today’s English Version.
My prayer for you today is: be content with what you have; pray for what you need.