What Do You Desire This Christmas?

Pray.

Father, open our eyes to the truth of who You are. Help us today to understand what our true desire must be.

Open my eyes so that we may see Your Word. Open our ears to hear, our minds to understand, and open our hearts so that we may receive Your Word today.

Amen.

One word that is often overlooked or misused during the Christmas season is the word “desire.”

Webster’s dictionary defines desire as to wish for something or to long for or to crave. It comes from a Latin word that means “heavenly body.”

Children have a desire for new toys.

Teens have a desire for new clothes.

Ladies have a desire for bling.

Men have a desire for electronics.

If you don’t believe me watch some television commercials, they are designed to catch the attention of your desire.

Eventually the new toys break.

The new clothes don’t fit or go out of style.

The bling looses its shine.

And the technology of the electronics is outdated a week after you get it.

So we begin to desire those things again.

We need more new toys, more new clothes, more bling, and more electronics.

Is our desire what it should be?

There is no better place to understand what our desire should be during this time of the year and every time of the year than in the Word of God.

Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. You are in church and in this church we talk about the Bible every Sunday and ever Wednesday evening.

We are going to look at three Old Testament passages today that will help us bring our desire into its correct focus.

The first is in Daniel 2:17-23, paying very close attention to verse 18.

Let me set this up for you before we read it from the King James Version.

Daniel and his friends had been captured and taken to Babylon. During this time God gave them knowledge and understand and wisdom. And during this time these young men found the favor of the king who had captured them.

One night the king, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that deeply

The catch about interpreting the dream was that if you could not tell the king what the dream was and what the interpretation was then all the wise men would be killed.

Just a little pressure.

That is where we pick up our story.

17Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: 18That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: 21And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. 23I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.

Daniel 2:17-23

Did you catch verse 18?

The Amplified translates it, So that they would desire and request mercy of the God of heaven… Daniel 2:18 AMP.

In this verse we see one of the major problems in the world today. Today people do not have any desire for the God of heaven.

Oh that the church would desire and request mercy of the God of heaven!

We have a God who loves us so much that He sent from heaven His one and only Son, the greatest present mankind has ever known, to redeem our relationship with Him.

He has given us every good thing. He has provided for our every need. He has put the enemy under our feet. He has healed every disease. He has given us wisdom and power.

And yet people today fail to make God the main object of their desire.

When Daniel and his friends made God their main desire God then provided their needs.

What did they need? They needed a revelation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. God gave it to them. Look at verse 23.

23I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.