Crying out for the burden of desire is asking God to make weighty on your heart that which He wants you to desperately want.

When you’re hungry for pizza, you begin looking for ways to get ahold of some. When you are hungry for ice cream, you start brainstorming ways to acquire it. When God makes us hungry for a specific picture of the future, our mind goes to work to attain that future.

Of course, not everything we can dream up is God’s will for us. Still, petitioning God to give us a restless hunger for HIS WILL can get us moving.

The old cliché is true: God doesn’t tend to direct parked cars.

We cry out in prayer because God works through our sanctified desires.

Psalms 37:4 promises that God will give us the desires of our hearts, but this verse also seems to come truer and truer as those desires come more in line with the kind He would want us to have. (See James 4:3)

Just because you desire something doesn’t mean it’s wrong to want it, though it may mean your motives need to be marinated in God’s Word, and the nuances of the calling need to be clarified over time.

Humbly do what you’re gifted at. 

Seekers-of-visions should busy themselves with doing things they already love to do to help others and glorify God. 

If you don’t know what you’re gifted at, chances are you’re not trying enough things. The benefit of trying ALMOST ANYTHING is that it quickly teaches us what we are NOT good at and eliminates options. 

People are often too impatient to start this, but the time is going to pass anyway. The sooner we start, the sooner we have more clarity.

Only when we are already giving ourselves to SPECIFIC things is there an opportunity for God to develop our calling, clarify what we’re not supposed to be doing, and open doors for us to do more of what we SHOULD be doing.

You don’t need to be a visionary to fulfill God’s Vision.

Truthfully, while everyone should have a vision for being useful to Jesus, not everyone is a VISIONARY. I have found it can be very encouraging to folks to take this pressure off of them.

As we grow in maturity, we should have a clearer and clearer idea of the kinds of things God wants to do through us, along with the kinds of goals He would lead us to.

Being a visionary is a spiritual DNA thing. Most folks don’t have this. That’s because the Holy Spirit has placed each part of the body just as He wanted it.

It is enough to have a burden of desire to use your spiritual gifts, opportunities, limitations, and resources to glorify God. You don’t need to start a worldwide ministry.

If we are

• Humbly crying out to God for the vision and 
• Taking the obedience steps that we are aware of 

Then we can relax in faith that

• God will either speak clear vision into us or 
• He’ll lead us into partnerships with other people whose vision we help contribute to. 

No one is going to serve God perfectly. No one fulfill’s God’s vision fully except for Jesus Himself. Just don’t let that fact be an alibi for inactivity.

You don’t want REGRET to be a major theme of your life on judgment day. Seek God daily and partner with Him, asking him to give you the burden of desire for what He wants you to want. Then honor Him in how you use your time, talents, resources, opportunities, etc., as you work to carry out that vision.

Do you have the burden of a desire to see God bring something specific about in or through you this year?

Sovereign Lord,

Thank you for the many ways you bless me. Help me honor you in utilizing my time, talents, affections, opportunities, resources, and money. Grant me a clearer, hungrier vision for how you’d like to direct the next season of my life. Give me the strength and discipline to carry it out for Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Want to go deeper? Pick up the Power of a Focused Life series at the BibleLeadership.com store.

Related Posts:

• Why You Need a God-Sent Picture of the Future
• Did God Forget His Promise to You?