Pastor Lindell Ballenger

Genesis 29:31-35

We only have one life on this earth. Regardless of hardships we have faced, and in spite of the mistakes we have made, the life we each return to God at death can be full of praise and thanksgiving or misery and complaint. In defining the quality of the life we have lived, one might say, that life was a good as the desires we had fulfilled, or it was as bad as our disappointments.

Difficulties are a part of life on earth, and most of the time we handle them quite well. But every time we suffer a major disappointment, a heaviness or a loss of joy settles upon our hearts, Proverbs 13:12 says “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Deep disappointments have a way of never leaving us of actually shaping our personality and our outlook on life.  The quality of life we experience is diminished by these disappointments, Our future wellbeing is also affected because carrying disappointment makes us: less outgoing and less socially attractive to others, which causes further emotional setbacks in other areas of our lives Gradually, unless we learn to handle disappointment and heartache in God, we can become the type of person that others withdraw from a person who is forever talking about his problems.

I know many people whose desires are their gods. They desire wealth, they desire marriage, they desire friends and they desire fame or security. These desires rule them and make them their slaves. Are such desires evil?  They are not in themselves, but if having our desires fulfilled is the reason why we have come to God, our life will not change until our priorities change.

An example is found in the story of Leah, Jacobs’s first wife in Genesis 29.  She was unloved by her husband. She was in fact somewhat unattractive and Jacob was already in love with her younger sister, Rachel.           Leah’s father tricked Jacob into marrying her and Jacob resented her because of it. Yet, the Lord saw her pain. Leah, though unloved by her husband, was loved by the Lord, and the Lord gave her a son.  Leah’s reaction was, “surely now my husband will love me.” (Genesis 29:32)

Leah’s desires were for her husband, and she assumed that the Lord favored her so Jacob would love her.  Two more times she gave birth to sons and each time her heart’s desire was for her husband saying, “now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.”  Yet Jacob still did not desire her.

There is a lesson to be learned here that is most important. We cannot make another person love us.  In fact, the pressure and striving that we place upon others to accept us actually makes them reject us more. Such striving is repulsive. Leah was striving for acceptance; she was incomplete without her husband’s love. But her hopes were not just deferred; they were dashed brutally upon the rocks of life and after ten to fifteen years of trying, Leah’s hope of being loved by her husband died.

Yet, something else occurred in her heart that was the most significant turn of her life. She became pregnant again with a fourth son and during the months of this pregnancy, out of her devastation she began to seek the lord for herself. She started falling in love with the Almighty. When she gave birth to her next son she said, “THIS TIME I WILL PRAISE THE LORD.”

Perhaps you have been struggling with a desire that as the years pass seems further than ever from fulfillment.  You may have reached a place where certain hopes are dying and you are suffering with great heartache. The pain you feel is attached to your desire.

The first verse we read Proverbs 13:12 said “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” But the verse concludes with “…desire fulfilled is a tree of life” That which makes life joyful is having our desires fulfilled.            When we have wanted something for a long time and that desire is finally satisfied it becomes a tree of life to us. Because it is the fulfillment of our desires that is life to us.  The key to a wonderful life is to choose your desires carefully, according to the will of God.  Make sure your priorities are correct that the first desire you want fulfilled is your

Desire for a pure walk with God.  If fulfillment in life comes from your desires for god your life will ever be filled with elation.

Here is a truth that you have needed to know all of your life. There are things wrong with you. I know you areshocked; you never dreamed it was possible, but it’s true. Perhaps we all can say we know we are not perfect. However, the problem is with most of us is that the things we admit are wrong are not the things to which I am here referring. Few can see the flaws that really hurt them, but they are there.      

As we walk with God, He changes us from the inside out. If you find that most of your thoughts orbit around your unfulfilled desires, you are becoming obsessed by those desires and you are not just flawed like everyone else.  Your striving for fulfillment is making you more and more emotionally unbalanced.

The process is painful, but it a possible that unless you change, your desires you may never be fulfilled.  What a waste your life will become. The sense of fulfillment for which you strive must come from the Lord. He is your fulfillment. “In him you are complete” (Colossians 2:10)

You may say that is easy for you to say, you are blessed.  But you don’t understand my problems.  Yes I do I have had the difficulties and heartaches too, but I have had to come to the place where I say THIS TIME I WILL PRAISE THE LORD.

Leah named her fourth son JUDAH - PRAISE and her life turned around when she chose to delight in God in spite of her unfilled desires.

Psalm 37:4 “delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Delight, does not mean go to church.  It does not mean Read the Bible.  Itincludes those things, but to delight in something is to take great pleasure, gratification and joy in it.  It is that which gives us Extreme Pleasure.  Delight yourself inthe Lord.  Make him your chief pleasure in life and life will be full and joyful.

THE OUT COME OF LEAHS LIFE

What happened to Leah?  Years came and went. Both Rachel and Leah had died and as Jacob lay on his death bed, he spoke to his sons. 

I am about to be gathered to my people bury me with my fathers in the cave which Abraham bought for a burial site. There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah and there. I buried Leah (Genesis 49:29-31)

Notice the words “there I buried Leah.”  Oh, how those words, though few, say so much. They tell us that God had beautified his afflicted one, Leah, with salvation.   Over the years as the natural beauty of both wives faded, the deep inner beauty of what God had wrought in Leah shone forth.  Jacobs heart had been knit to her in love.

The final point is this: We are not in this world for our desires, but for Gods.  The scriptures tell us, “all things have been created for him, not us.” (Colossians 1:16) lf we will make Him our chief desire, we will find fulfillment and peace in our lives no matter what hardship or circumstances we face.           

Pray with me. Lord Jesus forgive me for letting my desire for the things of this world rule my heart. Master, I choose you, I give my life to you and I entrust to you my desires. Beautify my life by letting me fulfill your desires. Amen.

The purpose of Christianity is not to avoid difficulty, but to produce a character adequate to meet it when it comes. It does not make life easy rather it tries to make us great enough for life.

(Source: mail.aol.com)