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Want is a great word and it is a horrible word. How one uses it and how one reacts to it determines whether it is positive or negative. While we ought to want to follow God and do His will, it is also true that He is our Shepherd and we ought not to want! Today’s message will deal with legitimate and non-legitimate wants of the believer.

Want

I once talked to a man who said, I don’t want much! All I want is the land I have and all the other land that touches mine.” After scratching my head a bit, I finally figured out what he was saying. His cute little quip was just another way of saying that he wanted everything he could get in the way of real estate!

To want in one sense is to lack, or to be deprived of that which one ought to have or that which one needs. In that sense, we can truly say, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23.1). In another place the psalmist said, “I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.” (Psalm 37.25). God is faithful and will not let His children go without that which they legitimately need. For He, Paul said, “…shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4.19). Being content with what we have is a noble trait. Paul spoke of himself and said, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” (Philippians 4.11). This same inspired writer spoke of the time when the Jews collectively were “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Ephesians 3.2).

To want to follow God is to have one’s eyes set on the goal of godliness and all that it entails. Paul charged, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3.1-20. The King James Version renders this last verse, “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” When we sincerely want to follow God, we will not want the things of the earth, nor will we want for the things of the earth!

Now here is a legitimate want of the believer: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” (2 Corinthians 5.1-4; emphasis mine, jb). Paul said in another passage, “For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.” (Philippians 1.23-24); emphasis mine, jb).

Somehow we have become a nation of people who want! We want bigger and better cars, homes, toys, and any other status symbol that our neighbors might recognize. Contentment is a status that few in our society ever seem to attain. One of the important lessons of Jesus that we have missed is this: “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12.15). Want the legitimate; refuse to want that which cannot bring contentment!

Questions:

1. When the Lord is our Shepherd, how is it that we shall not want?

2. Would it be right to say, “When we want for unwholesome things, the Lord is NOT our Shepherd?”

3. What does it meant to set one’s mind on things above (Colossians 3.2)?

4. If life does not consist of things possessed, then of what does it consist? Give a biblical response?

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

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