I started out by saying we need to lay out all our desires. Now it’s time to give them to God and let go of them. Offer your prayers to God and make sure to release them into his care. Give all your desires to God for safekeeping. Entrust your longings to him and allow God to hold them for you. In letting go, we are surrendering our desires to God.
Chronically conflicting desires must both be offered. So often, we pray for help and healing while still clutching the temptation. You may be surprised to find that the desire to indulge food cravings is still lodged in your mind. You prayed for and let go of the desire to eat normally, but the conflicting desire has been overlooked and is still deeply rooted in your mind. Since the desire to overeat is a major problem in your life, make sure to give this tenacious desire to God. You may be subconsciously holding onto it, keeping it for yourself. Sometimes we try to hide things from God or even from ourselves.
When we give the tempting desire to God, we trust that, in some way, satisfaction will come. We can give our food desires to God and trust that we will experience food satisfaction. All things are possible with God so long as we accept that we will receive in the way God provides. We need to understand that he magnifies what is natural and honorable in the tempting desire. He will provide for our wants as well as our needs, in his time and in his way.
It’s likely you will find other tempting desires lodged in the corners of your mind. These also should be given to God. We especially need to stop harboring desires that are compelling mind preoccupations. These are pet thoughts that chronically block the letting-go process. Temptations of the mind need to be surrendered to God. They weaken and may even degrade us. The sanctuary of the mind should not shelter the continual replaying of obsessive thoughts.
It’s hard to let go of a precious desire. It’s as if we have a pleasing possession that we would never want to just drop by the wayside. We can surrender the possession more readily if we trust that the precious desire will be remembered and in some way preserved. When we need to deal with the desire again, we may find that the desire isn’t quite so compelling after we have taken a break from it. It may have even transformed into something that has spiritual value while in the care of God. God preserves what is real in all that we have surrendered.
In the spiritual life, there is an emptying and a filling. Relinquish anything that keeps your mind busy and distracted. Do the best you can to make room for the presence of God—even if it is just a bit of cleared space. Then, take the vital second step. Let God into your mind.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him
Psalm 62:8a
