Welcome to Paul Tripp's Wednesday's Word podcast. I'm Dalton, a member of the Paul Trip

Ministries team. Join me each week as I read aloud Paul's popular Wednesday's Word devotional.

You can subscribe to our email list to receive this devotional straight to your inbox each week,

or you can read online at paultrip.com slash Wednesday or on Facebook, Instagram, and the Paul Trip app.

This week, Paul asks a revealing question,

are you following God for who he is or for what you hope he'll give you?

Drawing from the story of Hebackach will explore how true joy is found,

not in fulfilled desires, but in God himself.

Here's this week's Wednesday's word.

If you had to write down your dream for your life, what would you write? What sits on the other side of your, if only, statement?

How would you fill in the blank?

I would be happy if I could just have blank, or if God would just give me blank.

Maybe a better way to ask the question is this.

What kind of God do you want God to be? Even if we begin our spiritual relationship with God

with pure intention, the power of sin, the selfishness of the heart, and the deceit of the enemy

might lure us away. What started as holy, worshipful submission to Christ has the ability to morph

into love for self and the hope that Jesus will meet our desires by signing

the bottom of our wish list. Is it possible that you're excited about following the king for the wrong

reasons? I'm concerned for many Christians, including myself, that what might move and motivate us

is not first submission to God's will and a burning desire for his glory, but our own set of personal desires and dreams.

Could it be that we are most excited about the sovereignty of God because we see him as the most efficient delivery system for those dreams?

And what's one of the best ways to discern this? By listening to our words.

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