Psalms 27:4 (CSB)
“I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking him in his temple.”
Consider what strikes me as the obvious relationship between desire & motivation.
The more I want something, the more motivated I will be to do whatever it takes to experience it or acquire it. When you see a highly motivated person, you will find that they are acting on a strong desire that fuels their efforts.
But desires, like so much in life, start small — just a thought-suggestion, an impression. Track your own desires. Have a look back and you will see that desires that now perhaps even shape you daily life once were just an idea.
How did those desires come to be what they presently are? How do we strengthen a desire? Just by thinking about it. Desires feed on thoughts. That’s how they grow. The more you think about something you want, the stronger your desire for it will become.
What does “stronger” mean? It means that the desire produces even more thoughts about itself and more frequently.
Now let’s ask, What did David find so interesting in the Lord, what beauty did he see in him that He should write,
“I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking him in his temple”?
What did he think about throughout his growing years that gave rise to this desire becoming so strong that it defined his whole outlook for time and eternity?
No doubt David thought of God’s protection: Psalms 32:7 (NIV) “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
For sure David thought about God’s helpfulness: Psalms 54:4 (NIV) “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”
But what I think he most occupied his mind with was God's unfailing love and faithfulness. Here’s just one of his many references to these qualities in God: Psalms 36:5 (NIV) “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.”
What happened to David will most surely happen to us too if we will fix our attention on these two qualities — God's unfailing love and faithfulness. We will find our hearts saying with David, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Psalms 27:8
