Scriptures on Desire

It is evident that God wants us to think about what we desire and ask him for it. That's why the Desire question is the first in the Servant Initiative. Inherent to this question is deciding who we are going to ask for what we need. It is inevitable that we will encounter road blocks that we can't pass by ourselves. 

In turning to the scriptures to provide evidence for how crucial it is for each of us to answer these questions, I'm making certain assumptions about your Cause (the person you turn to for help, guidance, counsel, who is your role model, mentor, trainer, teacher). Either you already have chosen God as your Cause and you are a Christian or you're at least willing to allow me to persuade you to choose him. My specific religion has additional testimonies of Christ and the power of his atoning sacrifice in enabling us to resolve our conflicts and obtain our desired relationships. We have the Bible but also the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. In including references to verses in each of these works I am assuming that you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that you have an open mind about reading truths that echo and reinforce the Bible's truths. That defines my audience and eliminates all other readers. So if you're in, let's continue.

In Matthew 7:7-8 it says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

This message from our Savior is repeated using similar words in at least 13 other scriptures in the Bible New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine & Covenants.

Bible New Testament
Luke 11:9

Book of Mormon
3 Nephi 14:7; 27:29; 2 Nephi 9:42

Doctrine & Covenants
D&C 4:7; 6:5; 11:5; 12:5; 14:5; 49:26; 66:9; 88:63; 75:27

Additional scriptures repeat the message using different words. In the Book of Mormon it says, “O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him” (Mormon 9:27).

In Moroni 7:26 it says, “Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you.”

When Jesus came to his disciples on the American continent, as recorded in 3 Nephi 27:2, they had been praying to the Father in his name. He stood in the middle of them and asked them, “What will ye that I shall give unto you?”

Nephi, the son of Lehi, had the Desire to see and know for himself what his father had. When he sought the Lord and pondered in his heart what his father had taught him, he had a vision and the first thing the Spirit asked was, “what desirest thou?” (1 Nephi 11:2)

It was also this same message that struck so powerfully the heart of Joseph Smith, a latter-day prophet of God. When he was fourteen years old he was reading James 1:5, which says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” When Joseph did what this scripture counseled, he received a remarkable vision that guided him in his decision of which church (Specific Cause) he should join.

Our Heavenly Father knows that we have Desires and he knows what they are. That was taught by the Savior as recorded in Matthew 6:8, “…for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

But we need to officially ask the Father for them in prayer because our Desires are a matter of our agency. We use our agency when we identify what it is we want. When we do this we are also saying that we are willing to sacrifice all other Desires that interfere with this one and to engage in the sacrifice process it’s going to take to obtain it. When we officially ask God for our Desire, we’re communicating to him how important our Desire is to us.

Definition of Desire

Desire Question