What God Really Wants for You

Old Treasures on Tuesdays 👑

It’s audio devo day! Enjoy it right here, including a time of ministry. Daddy God wants to pour His tender revelation into your heart in these moments:

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“There shall be no more pain…” (Rev. 21:4, NKJV).

In the thick of a painful season of my life, Holy Spirit whispered to my heart with exquisite tenderness, “I didn’t want this for you.” With His next breath, He added, “What I wanted for you was Eden.”

In that one moment, a flood of revelation inundated my spirit. My heart found center. Looming, overshadowing questions settled beautifully into serenity. The shift inside of me was very similar to the one Asaph describes in Psalm 73. I know you will find this passage strengthening for your own life. So let’s take a look together at this psalmist’s ‘before,’ his ‘after’… and what happened in between:

His ‘before’: Asaph was overwhelmed with confusion. (Have you been there?) “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me… My heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind” (Ps. 73:16, 21, NKJV).

His ‘defining moment’: Asaph had an encounter with God that changed everything. (Does your soul cry out for this?) “I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood…” (v. 17, emphasis mine).

His ‘after’: Asaph burst into exultant worship. (What else can we do when Daddy God comes through for us so beautifully?) “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (vv. 25-26).

These three stages sum it up precisely. What Asaph experienced is what the Father is holding out to us. He wants to lavish those life-changing, defining moments on you and me as well.

As I was sharing with you, this Psalm paints a picture akin to what happened to me in the midst of my own soul’s turbulence. My heart was grieved. I could not comprehend why God would allow me to undergo so much suffering. My mind was vexed. My attempts to reconcile my circumstances with His goodness were confounding me.

And then I had an encounter with Him. And then, just like my brother Asaph, I understood. In my heart of hearts, I grasped this transformational truth. All this pain was not what He wanted for you and me. What He wanted for us was Paradise.

Eden reveals to us everything that was in His beautiful heart for humankind from the very beginning. The celestial oasis we long for – with no pain, no tears, no bereavement, no heartrending goodbyes – was already here, on the earth. That’s how He set it up for us. That’s what He achingly longed… and still longs… for us to have.

But we chose sin. As a result, death came. Hardship and suffering became part of our earthly sojourn, but they do not reflect His design for us.

However, I hear someone reminding me, He has redeemed our destruction. You are right. Yes, He has. And yes, He accompanies us intimately through the valley of the shadow of death. Yes, He weeps with every stabbing cry of our hearts. Yes, He took ownership of our soul’s indescribable devastation. Yes, He became one with our anguish. Yes, He surrendered His entire being to its engulfing, agonizing, screaming torture, on the cross. Yes, He understands, better than we will ever know.

Yes, He releases to us now what He purchased with His own punishment. Yes, He unceasingly comforts us, strengthens us, rescues us, and heals us. Yes, He unceasingly works His Romans 8:28 miracles, masterfully turning everything meant to destroy us into immeasurable blessing.

Yes. All of that. He made magnificent, mind-boggling provision for our pain…

But He doesn’t want us to forget…

He never wanted us to have it in the first place.

To really know Jesus’ heart, you have to understand this. He did not have affliction and grief in mind when He was dreaming of you for all of eternity past. What He really yearns to give you… unspeakably so… is still Paradise.

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4, NKJV).

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Have you had an “Asaph moment,” so to speak, where getting into the presence of God brought the peace and clarity and perspective you needed?