Affections, Appetites & Attention
Read: Deuteronomy 8:2-3; Matthew 4:1-11; Philippians 2:12-13; Hebrews 12:1-2.
Key verse
“for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13.
Focus: God exposing and refining our affections, appetites, and attention, deepening our desire for Him and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
God created us for Himself. Only He can truly satisfy the deepest hunger of our hearts. We thankfully recognise, receive, and enjoy His gifts, while our love and our gaze remain centred on the Giver.
Yet other loves and desires compete for our hearts. They occupy our thoughts, claim our time, engage our will, and attract our investments. The desert places can bring these hidden loyalties into view.
The wilderness is an uncomfortable place. It can be lonely and fearful, dry, hot, and exhausting. The ground is hard to travel. Food and water become pressing concerns, and we long for shelter, sustenance, and assurance that we will make it through. There are seasons in our lives that feel like this. Familiar comforts seem far away, and the way ahead is uncertain.
Israel knew the wilderness. In Deuteronomy 8:2-3, Moses reminds the people that God led them there to humble and test them, revealing what was in their hearts. He allowed them to hunger, and He fed them with manna. They were learning that their lives depended upon Him and His word.
The wilderness has a place in God’s work of shaping His people. Here our affections, appetites, and attention can be tested, refined, and transformed as He works within us.
Affections: What am I treasuring?
Our affections concern what we hold dear. Jesus connects our treasure with our heart (Matthew 6:19-21). The desert can expose what we have come to depend upon for security, worth, or peace.
What happens within me when approval is absent, plans are interrupted, or a familiar comfort is unavailable? What am I holding so tightly that I struggle to entrust it to God?
We bring these discoveries before our Father. We receive His gifts with thanksgiving, keeping our hearts centred on Him. Even in their absence, He remains worthy of our love.
Appetites: Lord, give me a desire for You.
The desires of the world compete with our desire for Him. There is a tussle within us. We can recognise Christ’s goodness and still feel the pull of what promises immediate satisfaction or relief.
The desert exposes those appetites. What do I reach for when I am unsettled? What do I crave when I am weary or afraid?
Even our desire for God depends upon His gracious work. Philippians 2:13 places both the desire and the work in His hands.
He works at the root of our wanting and enables the obedience that follows. We respond to Him, depending upon His work within us.
Our prayer begins here: Lord, give me a desire for You.
That inward work bears fruit in the choices we make and the actions we take. Both the desire and the work depend upon Him.
Attention: What does my life reveal?
Our affections and appetites become visible in what occupies our attention. What we love and desire draws our passion, engages our will, and receives our time and resources.
My timesheet and my bank statement can become searching witnesses. Where am I investing my time? What receives my money, energy, and planning? Where do my thoughts continually return? These patterns offer evidence of what I treasure and what I crave.
We bring that evidence into prayer. Work, family responsibilities, and service can themselves express love for Christ. The question reaches into the heart of these activities: Who am I seeking to please? What am I pursuing in the way I spend myself?
Fixing my eyes on Jesus reaches into these ordinary decisions. Love for Him finds practical expression in how I live.
Our eyes upon Jesus
Jesus Himself entered the wilderness before His public ministry. Led by the Spirit, He fasted and faced temptation (Matthew 4:1-11). He had no disordered affections to purify. In hunger and testing, He remained faithful to His Father.
Hebrews 12:1-2 calls us to run with endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus, who endured the cross and is seated at God’s right hand. He is the One upon whom our faith depends.
The desert may still be hard. We may not understand the purpose of a particular season. Yet we can ask our Father to sustain us and use even this place to make us more like His Son. The hardship itself has no power to transform us; God works through His Word and Spirit as we respond in dependence and obedience.
Here our prayer finds its resting place: Lord, draw my affections towards You, give me a desire for You, and keep my attention upon Jesus.
Our eyes upon Him. Fixed, not wandering.
A practical response
Prayerfully review how you have spent your time, attention, and resources this week. Name one desire or attachment that this reveals. Bring it to the Father, asking Him to give you a desire for Him and to enable one practical step of obedience today.
Prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the wisdom in Your Word. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for opening my understanding and helping me to fix my eyes on Jesus. You know the loneliness, the struggle, and the weariness of this place. Sustain me here. Reorder my affections, give me a desire for You, and work within me both to desire and to do what pleases You. Make me more like Jesus. Keep my eyes upon Jesus, fixed, not wandering. Amen.
Quote
Our eyes upon Jesus. Fixed, not wandering.
Food for thought
- What is this season revealing about what I love, what I desire, and where I invest myself?
- Where do I need God to work within me, both to desire and to do what pleases Him?