Lifting Our Hearts in Prayer
Daily Scripture Readings
Monday Mark 10:46–52
Tuesday Psalm 37
Wednesday Psalm 115
Thursday Genesis 3
Friday I John 2:15–17
Saturday Revelation 4
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, before whom all hearts are open, to whom all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit so that we may perfectly love You and may worthily magnify Your holy Name— through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
—The Collect for Purity
from the Book of Common Prayer
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
“What Do You Want?”
Some Devotional Thoughts on Prayer, Worship, & Desire
Have you ever been to The Varsity and been hollered at, “What’ll you have?!”
When you’re asked that most-important question, you’d better have it already figured out. There’s no hesitating. To hesitate is to miss your opportunity.
“What’ll you have?!”
Are we humans simply thinking creatures, as Rene Descartes suggested— merely rational animals?
No, there’s more to being human than thought (or doubt). Even more fundamental to our humanity is worship. Without exception, we are worshipping creatures. Everyone— every last one of us— will worship something, even the most irreligious among us.
We lean toward our wants. We both live out and live into the desires of our hearts.
That’s why the psalmist warns us— we become like what we worship.
The psalmist also assures us— the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts.
Be careful what you worship, what you behold, what you gaze upon, what you long for. Be careful what you want.
John Wesley insisted that, in the end, every man gets what he truly wants.
C. S. Lewis put it this way: In the end, there are two kinds of people… those who look to God and surrender, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God will finally look and surrender, “Thy will be done.”
What you want is no small matter. It’s of eternal significance. It’s of absolute importance.
As Saint Augustine noted, what you love is the greatest possible question to be asked and to answer.
We think of longing as simply a matter of the heart, and to be sure, it’s not less than a matter of the heart. Yet, truly, desire is a whole-life endeavor.
Desire directs the heart. It does lean us in the direction of its object. But desire also drives the head. It motivates us to consider its object, to think about it, to gaze upon it and reflect on it. And, furthermore, desire determines the hands. At the risk of putting it perhaps a bit too bluntly, you really do what you really want. It’s one of the most basic rules of life. You pursue what you truly and deeply desire, and you grow to want more and more what you do more and more.
But this doesn’t account for Grace— doesn’t it? Perhaps, it does. The more you truly and deeply interact with the Grace of God, the more truly and deeply you want more of Him and the more inclined you are to trust and obey Him.
You see: Desire is like a hunger. The more we feed it, the more it wants. Its capacity grows with its intake. So, again, be careful what you want.
In the Gospel of Mark, we read about a man named Bartimaeus. For him, life at some point had become quite unfair. To the best of our knowledge, he had fallen into the suffering of blindness due to no fault of his own. Blind Bartimaeus.
Yes, at some point, he had lost his eyesight. Notice one small detail of his request: “I want to recover my sight.” It was his, and it was lost.
How old was he now? No clue. How old had he been when he lost his sight? Again, no clue. But he was waiting and longing and he apparently had been for some time.
He models for us what it means to desire well. He shows us what it looks like to listen out, leaning toward the voice of God in Christ!
After what was most likely years of blindness, Bartimaeus was given his opportunity, a dream come true, really: “Come! The Master said He wants to see you!” (Despite any blindness we have— physical, spiritual, relational, or otherwise— He both sees and wants to see us.)
And so, Bartimaeus sprang up immediately and threw off his cloak. In the presence of Jesus, his place and possessions were nothing to him. In fact, they would only serve as a hindrance— and if a hindrance, they must be cast aside and abandoned without delay.
And Jesus asks him that all-important question: “What do you want?”
“I want to recover my sight.”
Then, after healing Bartimaeus, Jesus sets him free to head home. He tells him ambiguously but suggestively, “Go your way.” And wouldn’t you know it— without hesitation, Bartimaeus makes clear what his way is: Wherever Jesus is heading. He immediately starts following Jesus!
What do you want? I mean, what do you really want?
Like our blind friend, act accordingly.
Get out of the house.
Get out on the roadside.
Get out of yourself and start shouting for Jesus.
Beg for Him: “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
And when He calls for you— because He certainly will— make sure you’re out there, ready to hear His voice, prepared with your answer.
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
Put elsewise, “What’ll you have?!”