All Your Desires

Why do you sin? No, I do not mean, how do you fall into sin, or why are you tempted with specific sins. I mean: what do you expect to get out of sinning? For many it is merely a matter of an habitual behavior that they fell into and did not realize how addictive sin can be (especially sexual sin). Yet, in our daily lives we make many choices, and whenever we choose to sin, we do so because we believe (at least in that moment) that the sin will provide us with something that we cannot get elsewhere.

In essence, we are telling God that those things that He has offered to us are insufficient, and we are thus telling Him that He is wrong. Ouch. Yeah, you do not want to do that. Much of the sinful behavior that people "enjoy" is a replacement for something that is good. As G.K. Chesterton once said, "every man who enters a brothel is looking for God". In other words, we all seek the goodness and joy that God offers every day of our lives, but many people seek it in all the wrong places.

Either people know what God has offered and do not think it will satisfy their desires, or people have no idea that God offers blessings that are so much better than anything the world churns out. It is not, however, a matter of just figuring out what God offers and then pursuing it. We have to believe that it really is better. Someone said to me recently that he had to come to see there are many people who just keep going after sin because they really think that is the only happiness life has to offer. Scripture tells us in many places that people seek sin as a salve for their conscience, and it blinds them to the goodness and glory of God.

Whatever sin you may be struggling with, God has something that will satisfy you better. Do not get me wrong, God truly does want to give you a full satisfaction of your proper desires. The Psalms even say "seek the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". This is because when we are truly seeking God those things that we desire will be satisfied with the graces that He provides and we will no longer need to seek them in sin. We need to learn this, but we also need to love it. It takes some serious repentance of heart to admit that we have rejected such abundant graces, but once we do so, we can then find true joy.