Do You Desire God above All Else? (A Thought Experiment)

Gary Habermas offers a thought experiment to help us examine our motives concerning what we’re asking God for in prayer:

[In his book Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing,] Peter Kreeft proposes a thought experiment in order to assist believers in determining [their] motives. What would we say if God offered us whatever we most wanted in life? What would we take if, whatever it was, it was ours for the asking? Would it be wealth? Power? Honor? How about peace of mind? But while you are thinking it over, God goes on to explain that there is only one thing you may not choose. You will never see His face.

What would our response be to this declaration? Would you be secretly satisfied to take one of the many other treasures, or would you be emotionally crushed by the last condition? Where do your true desires lie? Do you desire God and His Kingdom above all else? Such an experiment might help to provide an answer to the question of our secret desires and our ultimate motivation.

James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” This isn’t to say that when we don’t receive a particular thing we’ve asked for, the explanation is always wrong motives (see 2 Corinthians 12:7–9 for an example of where this was not the case), but it does serve as a good reminder about prayer.

Here’s a question to consider as you pray: Are your prayers oriented toward God and His Kingdom? Is that thing you’re praying for a means by which you may know, love, and serve God Himself, or is God merely the means you’re using to get that thing?

By considering this question, you may find you’re praying for something you shouldn’t be asking for. But there’s another possible—and far more exciting—outcome: you might simply increase your awareness of how the good things of this world exist for the glory of God.

For example, maybe you’ve been praying for a spouse without having thought through how marriage is a picture of the union of Christ with His church, how when a husband loves his wife “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” when he “loves his own wife even as himself,” and when the wife “respects her husband,” together their relationship shows their neighbors who Christ is.

Or perhaps you’re praying about your need for a car, and as you consider the above question, you think of the many ways you will use that car to serve your neighbor and care for your family, “that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

If we always considered our prayer requests this way, I think it would transform not only what we ask for, but also how we see everything we’re given.

Comments

[scbrownlhrm]

Man's true good, his final felicity, cannot end in some contingent state of affairs. The reason that is the case is simply because the syntax of "true good" speaks of something irreducible. On Christianity, that is. Not so much, obviously, with Non-Theism(s).

“Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” (by C.S. Lewis)

[dave]

Desiring God above all else is not necessarily a good thing. Many see God as a tool they can use to get what they want, and desire him for this reason. The Word of Faith movement comes to mind.

But having tasted his mercy and providence, desiring God's glory might be a more noble ideal to shoot for. What higher purpose can anyone have than to make God known?

[Amy]

Many see God as a tool they can use to get what they want, and desire him for this reason.

Then that wouldn't be desiring Him above all else! It would be desiring Him as a means to get the thing they really want (which is the very question I ask above).

[Kris Webb]

Honestly, I think I desire less to see God's face, that not to see the "other guy's" face.

[dave]

"Then that wouldn't be desiring Him above all else!"

Not if God is the only means of provision. Ulterior motives are not always bad. Solomon desired God for wisdom.

But if God has mercy on us and we seek to make his Glory known, it seems better.

When we wake up each morning and pray that God would (fill in the blank) for us. It is good and according to the Lord's prayer. But if we ask that God would be glorified in us it is better for all.

[DGFischer]

dave is on to something here.

What if our greatest dream and desire in life is to have greater opportunities to serve Him?

To not see God's face from that would mean we value the opportunity rather than the actual service to God.

[scbrownlhrm]

....to know *Him*.....

By Watchman Nee, from his book “God’s Work”,

"The organized church today emphasizes what a person says and what a person does but pays little attention to what a person is. Many young workers earnestly desire to be able to speak with power, long for eloquence, yearn to be able to preach brilliantly in order to move and help people. They fail to realize that this is not the vital point. The vital issue is: Who and what are you? The thing of value, the preeminently important matter is, not that you are given a gift and therefore you are able to speak, but that you know the Lord and therefore you speak."

[scbrownlhrm]

W. Nee: The preeminently important matter is that you know the Lord.....

Paul: To know Him and the power of......

Christ: And this is life, to know.....

[Amy]

Honestly, I think I desire less to see God's face, that not to see the "other guy's" face.

Then it may very well be you're not looking at His face enough now. A couple of books you might want to start with:

Look and Live
Rejoicing in Christ

[Mo]

I love this so much, thank you!