Questions:
What does God desire? (3,
4, 6, 9, 15, 31)
Does God know your
desires? (14)
When does God fulfill a
person’s desires? (12, 13, 18)
To what do right desires
lead? (4, 15, 18, 19, 29, 31)
What desire does God
oppose? (2, 20, 23, 24)
How can you develop wrong
desires? (1, 8, 32)
To
what do wrong desires lead? (5, 7, 10, 11, 17, 21, 22, 27, 30)
How can you manage your
desires? (16, 25, 26, 28)
What appetite (desire) do
you have that you know is destructive, but you still feed it?
Scriptures
from the New American Standard Bible:
God reflects on desire:
1)
Genesis 4:7 "...If you do well, will not your countenance be
lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;
and its desire is for you, but you must master it..."
2)
Deuteronomy 5:21 “...'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and
you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field
or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or
anything that belongs to your neighbor.'...”
3)
Isaiah 55:11 “...So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I
desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent
it...”
4)
Isaiah 58:10 “...And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy
the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in
darkness And your gloom will become like midday...”
5)
Hosea 4:8 “...They feed on the sin of My people And direct
their desire toward their iniquity...”
6)
Matthew 9:13 "...But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE
COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners..."
7)
Mark 4:19 “...the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of
riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke
the word, and it becomes unfruitful...”
8)
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do
the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth
in him...”
9)
1 Timothy 2:3-4 “...God our Savior, who desires all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth...”
Job reflects on lack of
desire:
10)
Job 21:14 "...They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do
not even desire the knowledge of Your ways...”
The Psalmist reflects on
a variety of desires:
11)
Psalm 10:3 “...For the wicked boasts of his
heart's desire, And the greedy man curses and
spurns the LORD...”
12)
Psalm 10:17 “...O LORD, You have heard the desire of
the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will
incline Your ear...”
13)
Psalm 37:4 “...Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give
you the desires of your heart...”
14)
Psalm 38:9 “...Lord, all my desire is
before You; And my sighing is not hidden from
You...”
15)
Psalm 51:6 “...Behold, You desire truth in
the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know
wisdom...”
16)
Psalm 73:25 “...Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You,
I desire nothing on earth...”
17)
Psalm 112:10 “...The wicked will see it and be vexed, He will
gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the
wicked will perish...”
18)
Psalm 145:19 “...He will fulfill the desire of those
who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save
them...”
A wise one reflects on
desire:
19)
Proverbs 10:24 “...What the wicked fears will come upon him, But
the desire of the righteous will be granted...”
20)
Proverbs 12:12 “...The wicked man desires
the booty of evil men, But the root of the righteous yields fruit...”
21)
Proverbs 18:1 “...He who separates himself seeks his own
desire, He quarrels against all sound wisdom...”
22)
Proverbs 21:25 “...The desire of the sluggard
puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;...”
23)
Proverbs 23:6 “...Do not eat the bread of a
selfish man, Or desire his delicacies;..”
24)
Proverbs 24:1 “...Do not be envious of evil
men, Nor desire to be with them;...”
The followers of Christ
reflect on desire:
25)
Galatians 5:16 “...But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will
not carry out the desire of the flesh...”
26)
Galatians 5:24 “...Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires...”
27)
Ephesians 2:3 “...we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our
flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of
the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest...”
28)
Colossians 3:5 “...Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry...”
29)
2 Timothy 3:12 “...Indeed, all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted...”
30)
2 Timothy 4:3 “...For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own
desires,...”
31)
Titus 2:12 “...instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the
present age,...”
32)
2 Peter 2:18 “...For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they
entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those
who barely escape from the ones who live in error,...”
