Understanding Your Heart's Desire
By Sarah Kozak
One morning, I was sitting at my kitchen table, wrapped up in a blanket, watching as the first few rays of sunshine began to streak out across the world. At this particular time in my life, I was in the midst of a recently-graduated-from-college crisis. I was questioning the job I was currently working at, and while I had vague ideas of what I thought I might like to do instead, I felt as though I had zero direction and that I was at the mercy of going after whatever was most accessible to me.
I knew I wasn’t the only person who’d experienced this. The amount of friends I had who’d recently graduated but then had no idea where they wanted to go next in life were too many to count. The “d-word” (my affectionate term for the word “discernment”) was being used in almost every conversation, but it seemed as though none of us were really making any progress. I began to wonder…
How do I truly begin to discover the mission that God is calling me to?
So there I was with my Bible spread on the table before me, searching for answers, unfortunately, without coffee...Ergo, I was having a rather pessimistic view on life during that sunrise prayer session. But, as He always does, God worked through it.
While unsuccessfully trying to hold back the yawns that threatened to split my mouth in two, I read the Exodus story of how the Lord presented Moses with his earthly mission through the revelation of the burning bush. While I’m sure that Moses had difficulty explaining to his family and friends that he heard a voice from a bush tell him to leave everything he knew and go out on this mission, I envied the clarity with which God provided him with through that encounter as to what He was calling him to do.
After closing my Bible and ruminating for a bit, I went out on a run, timing my footfalls to a playlist of intense soundtrack music as I vented out my frustration to Jesus. Midway through, I said rather point blank, “You know, God, it would be so nice if I could just have You come right now to me in a burning bush and tell me EXACTLY what you want me to do with my life the way you did for Moses.”
And out of nowhere, gently, but with a force that knocked me upside the head, I heard His voice say so clearly,
“But little one, I’ve already done that. Not through a burning bush, but rather through the burning desires of your heart!”
It hit me so hard that I literally stopped in my tracks in order to process it.
The word “desire” is actually taken from the Latin phrase “De-Sire” meaning “of the Father”. This means that our desires are not random or merely a nice idea. These desires are so intentional, so unique, and so specific to who we are, that they are there to be used as the arrows that point us directly towards our purpose and our calling- the very path that will allow us to grow into our full potential by striving to fulfill the mission our Father intentionally created us to carry out.
Many people I know, including myself, go for what they are familiar with or with whatever goal is considered to be the easiest to obtain. We often settle for lives that are “mediocre”, but which we define as being “safe” and “practical”. We give into the lie that, “Well, this must be as good as it gets.”
But if there’s anything I’ve learned about God’s will...it’s typically the opposite of “safe” and “practical”.
How many of us tend to sell our desires short- believing that the dreams God has placed on our hearts are unachievable? But ladies, we have a responsibility to fulfill the dream He’s given us because that is what is meant to be our contribution to the world! Without it, the world is deprived of the light that we were created to bring. The Lord wants to work through us to bring this light...and can’t He most easily work through us when we are doing what makes us feel fully alive?
“And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power…” -Exodus 4:21
God desires to work miracles through us! He’s placed it within our power to accomplish His plan for our lives, but we have to be willing to let him use us in the same way He used Moses- even with all of his fear and inadequacies. God wants to use us to heal and bring hope to a world that is broken, hurting, and begging for truth and genuine love- this is our Egypt! And the best way we can begin to do that, is by analyzing the desires of our heart to determine exactly where He is calling us to.
Will it require us to walk in faith? Absolutely.
Will it seem to be unrealistic and beyond what we think we’re capable of? Of course!
But God doesn’t work through the realistic. Rather, His glory is revealed through the impossible!
Notice the ending line of the verse… “the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.”
Let this be the phrase that describes your heart and your life. I pray that you live from those desires that your Father has so intentionally given to you. That you will live in a way that is on fire for love, fully alive, chasing after the burning desires of your heart. And with the knowledge that no matter what fires He may ask you to walk through, the Lord will not allow you to be consumed.