“The problem isn’t hunger but what we are hungry for.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – March 14, 2026
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4, ESV
Desire is core to the human experience. Though the nature of our desires varies from person to person, to desire is to be human. As Bruce Springsteen put it in his hit from 1980, “everybody’s got a hungry heart.”
When it comes to desire, one of the great mistakes we can make in life is to assume that hunger itself is the problem. The problem isn’t hunger but what we are hungry for. If we miss this, we will embrace an extreme vision of self-denial that fails to embrace the God-given goodness of desire and the way in which it can lead us into the joy of his kingdom.
Sometimes, Christians fail to see the truth of this vision. We hear the words of Mark 9:43 – “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” – as a command, not a warning. Our Lord doesn’t want you to maim your body, but he does want you to transform your desires. We cannot fulfill our broken desires. They will lead us in the way that leads to death, yet our Lord invites us to have our deepest desires healed, transformed, and redirected by his grace. As we read in Titus 2:12, the grace of God trains us “to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
Our deepest desires are transformed when we turn our gaze upon the only source of true and lasting delight. We don’t kill our broken desires by focusing on them. No, we train our hearts to love that which is worthy of love and adoration. God promises to give us the desires of our hearts, but this is directly tied to the command to delight in the Lord. We cannot separate one from the other. Our delight in the Lord becomes our deepest desire, the hunger that animates our actions and directs our steps. Make this the pursuit of your life, and your deepest desires will be fulfilled by his love and grace.
Prayer
Father, remind us afresh of the goodness of rightly ordered desires that find their delight in you, through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.
Application
Where have you tried to kill a desire when transformation is what is truly needed?
Related Reading
Romans 6:13; 1 Timothy 4:7-8; 2 Peter 1:4
Worship Resource
Lauren Daigle: First (Lyric Video)
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