Desire vs. Duty — Living The Everyday

Dec 10

Dec 10 Desire vs. Duty

When you think of having a quiet time with God, which would would you choose? Duty or Desire?

Let’s take a quick look at these definitions:

Definition of Desire:
verb (used with object), de·sired, de·sir·ing.
to wish or long for; crave; want.
to express a wish to obtain; ask for; request:
noun
a longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment:
an expressed wish; request.
Definition of Duty:
noun, plural du·ties.
something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation.
the binding or obligatory force of something that is morally or legally right; moral or legal obligation.

I few months ago I was driving out in the Snoqualmie Valley and three words came to mind: “Duty versus Desire.”

I share my quiet time spot on social media a lot. Most people who know me know my spot. It’s my leather wing back chair in our front living room in our house. It is where I go in the quiet of the morning to spend time with God before my kids awake and emerge from their rooms. It’s where I retreat at times during the day to find a moment of quiet. I love that spot and I look forward to my morning time. It has become a place I desire going to in the mornings. It has meaning and purpose. It has become this Psalm:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

My sitting spot and quiet time, however is not a duty.

I am not required, expected, or morally obligated to use my “sitting spot” for my quiet time. I am not told that I must sit there at certain hours of the day or required to spend any length of time studying there. It is purely a leather chair that has become my “meeting space” with Jesus. In fact, it’s not even a requirement for me to have a “quiet time.”

Too often we look at spending time with Jesus as a “duty to Christian living.” We start creating legalistic “to do’s” to check off to make us feel as though we are meeting requirements. However, God doesn’t want duty, He doesn’t want fake worship. He doesn’t want us to worship Him out of obligation. This is why He allows us to FREELY worship Him or not. But when we do worship Him, He wants all of us, not part of us. He wants our hearts. He wants our desire to purely be for Him. And this seeking, desiring, and longing after God doesn’t come with a caveat or “if - then” statement for God. It’s not: “If I seek God, then…” It’s the opposite.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

But be forewarned, this asking, seeking, and knocking should never be done halfhearted. It isn’t done in testing God. Nor is it, “If I ask God for something, He will always give me what I want…” The asking, seeking, knocking, is the action of seeking after Jesus himself.

A friend of mine had this longing in her heart, a desire to seek after God. She desired to crave scripture and simply asked, “God give me a desire for your word.” She desired that God would give her a desire to read the Word versus a feeling of duty and obligation. And what’s awesome, is He gave that to her because it was a sincere longing of her heart.

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord I will seek. (Psalm 27:8)

When we get into a daily habit of seeking God, the longings of our hearts shift. It begins to shift to a desire, a longing, a craving to get up and spend time with Him.

The reason I choose to get up early in the morning for my quiet time is because the distractions and busyness of the day have not consumed me. My mind is not distracted, the house is not loud, my phone is not buzzing. Is it always easy? No. But building a habit takes time. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are also choosing to walk as He walked. Even when the space we are walking through is a dessert, we keep walking anyways. We choose to know him not out of duty, but out of a deep long and desire.