Let Down | What We Want Need

Enjoy the Lord! And he will give what your heart asks. Commit your way to the Lord! Trust him! He will act and will make your righteousness shine like the light, your justice like high noon. (Psalm 37:4-5 CEB)

"Enjoy the Lord! And he will give what your heart asks." That's a verse that gets misunderstood a lot. People read it and think it means, "If you love God, he'll give you whatever you want." Like God is some kind of cosmic vending machine. Just put in your prayers, and out comes whatever you asked for.

But that's not what this verse means. Because when we truly enjoy the Lord and make him the center of our lives, our desires change. The things we want start to line up with the things God wants. Our hearts start asking for what we actually need instead of just what we think we want in the moment.

That's what happened with the people waiting for the Messiah. They thought they wanted a conquering king. They thought they wanted political freedom. They thought they wanted military victory over Rome.

But what they actually needed was reconciliation with God. They needed someone who could restore their relationship with their Creator. They needed salvation, not just liberation.

And that's what Jesus came to provide. Not what people thought they wanted, but what they actually needed.

We do the same thing. We think we know what we want. So we make our Christmas lists, literal and metaphorical. We want certain gifts. We want certain experiences. We want our families to act a certain way. We want our celebrations to feel a certain way. And when we don't get what we want, we feel disappointed. We feel let down.

But maybe what we wanted wasn't actually what we needed. Maybe we thought we needed the perfect Christmas, but what we actually needed was to learn that God's presence matters more than perfect circumstances. Maybe we thought we needed everything to go according to plan, but what we actually needed was to learn to trust God when things don't go the way we expected. Maybe we thought we needed impressive decorations and expensive gifts, but what we actually needed was to remember that the simple truth of God becoming human is more valuable than anything money can buy.

Here's what I've learned over the years: God doesn't always give us what we want, because sometimes what we want isn't good for us. But God gives us what we need.

And what we need more than anything else is Jesus. Not Jesus the way we imagine him to be or the way we wish he would be, but Jesus as he actually is. The Jesus who came humbly. The Jesus who served others. The Jesus who loved outcasts and sinners. The Jesus who died on a cross and rose from the dead.

That Jesus is exactly what we need, even if he's not exactly what we expected. So as we approach Christmas Day, let's adjust our expectations. Let's stop demanding that Christmas give us what we want and start accepting what Christmas actually offers: the presence of God with us in the person of Jesus Christ. Because that's not just what we need. That's everything we need.

Closing Prayer:

God, we confess that we often focus on what we want instead of what we need. We make demands instead of receiving gifts. Help us to delight in you so much that our desires begin to align with yours. Thank you for giving us exactly what we need in Jesus, even when he's not what we expected. Amen.