As we delight ourselves in the Lord, He reshapes the desires of our wandering hearts. As we seek Him, our appetites will be transformed, and our disordered longings will be replaced by cravings for Christ’s supremacy. The very dreams we once directed toward earthly idols get mercifully re-centered on the only reality that can truly satisfy – the glory of God. In the face of such continuous cultural brainwashing, we must shut out all of the voices jostling for our affections. Instead, we must take the offensive in disciplining our disordered desires toward godliness.

You shall have no other gods before Me. – Exodus 20:3

The Bombardment of Disordered Appetites

When we examine the landscape of our culture, we’re bombarded on every side by forces aimed at stimulating and stoking our disordered appetites. It’s not just the apparent spheres of sexuality and sensuality – our hearts are being relentlessly seduced to lust after a wide array of idols, which itself is idolatry.

Think of the incessant advertising, marketing, and social media messaging relentlessly beckoning us to crave status symbols, luxurious possessions, and the trappings of wealth and financial security as sources of identity, worth, and happiness. Consumerism cranks the idolatrous longing for more and more stuff.

In the entertainment industry, we’re fed a wholly unbiblical narrative that self-actualization, self-indulgence, self-aggrandizement, and the unrestrained pursuit of our felt needs is the path to fulfillment. The cult of individualism stokes prideful self-exaltation.

In professional spheres, the god of shallow ambition and upward mobility is ever-tempting, luring us to make work an all-consuming idol. The trappings of career success, acclaim, and social positioning can become cruel masters.

Even the domestic sphere presents snares. We’re prone to covet the picture-perfect family, making loved ones into idols that must cater to our egos’ needs. Selfish appetites distort marital and parental roles.

Our depraved hearts remain factories of insatiable, disordered lusts and desires. Greed, gluttony, sloth, the lust for power and control – there’s no end to the profusion of potential idols vying for ultimate allegiance. We’re hardwired to allow these hunger pangs to go perpetually unsatisfied by giving them what cannot profit them, seeking to quell the cravings with things that will never satisfy us.

The Biblical Answer: Cultivating Holy Desires

Thankfully, Scripture beckons us to an altogether different path—the cultivation of holy desires set on God himself. You see, the Bible does not approach desire in the same way as the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those enemies come to you… and they attempt to stoke the sinful, carnal cravings that already burn within us. But God does not join that unholy chorus vying for our disordered affections. He is not one voice among a litany of spectators competing for our attention.

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