Thought of the Day 06.02.10

We easily talk about having true and false beliefs, but have you ever considered the possibility that your desires might also be described as either true or false? It seems weird, right? Well, my definition of a false desire is one whose satisfaction does not match or correspond to what was expected. When viewed this way, there are several ways a desire may be false.

First, we may desire something which is truly bad for us. We get it, but it makes us miserable. The Bible calls this sin. Second, we may desire something good, but we believe it will satisfy us more than it possibly can. We may get it, but the results are inadequate. The Bible calls this idolatry. Third, we may simply lack the proper desire for something good. We continually feel dissatisfied because we aren’t even pursuing the right things. The Bible calls this being carnal.

There may be other forms of false desire, too, but the value of seeing these three basic kinds is that now you can stop and ask your desires whether they are true or false before acting on them, a layer of challenge which just might avoid some of the pain of presuming they’re all basically true.