Cravings

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.- Matthew 19:21

You’ve no doubt heard the bible story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life. After Jesus gave him an answer he said he already followed all the rules and asked what he was still lacking. Jesus’ answer was today’s verse which basically says, “I want you to give up the one thing you crave more than me. Then come, follow me.”

Through this Royal Make Over, that response has opened my eyes to other cravings that don’t involve food that need to be addressed. I fully understand cravings for food that is not healthy and the need to resist eating them. But today the Lord asked me to be real and tell Him the other things I crave.

The definition of craving is to long for, greatly desire, to beg or plead. What other things in my life fall into the “want greatly” category? I have a picture in my mind of how I want my home life to be. How I want my husband to be. I want my business to be successful. I want the dogs to behave, just to name a few.

When I took the time to really examine my heart about each of those desires I realized that, at times, I can become obsessed with making them happen. The desires to have them often consume me which completely takes my focus off the ONE who has given me everything.

Jesus is inviting me to give all those cravings, all those desires to Him and then come follow Him….really follow Him. “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34) Nothing changes until we make the choice to redirect our misguided cravings to the only ONE capable of satisfying them.

“With Jesus, if we want to gain we must give up. To be filled, we must deny ourselves. To truly get close to God, we’ll have to distance ourselves from other things. To conquer our cravings, we’ll have to redirect them to God. God made us capable of craving so we’d have an unquenchable desire for more of Him, and Him alone.” (Lysa Terkurst)

This Royal Make Over is not easy and it involves so much more than eating healthier and exercising more. That’s just surface stuff. When God’s involved it goes deeper, all the way to the heart, but that’s what makes permanent change.