You can’t always get what you want. Why is this so hard to accept? Further, why do I always hear the Rolling Stones when I say that?

In James 4:1-3 he explains it like this: “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

I spent many wasted energies, time and money on my own pleasures with no thought of anyone or anything else. If I saw something I wanted; a new Ben and Jerry’s flavor or the latest i-whatever, my thoughts and time went to how I was going to get whatever I wanted. The horrible thing about getting what I want when I wanted it is the irony of not being satisfied. Ever. There was always more to want, more to get, which created a misuse of my energy misuse of my attitude and discontent with my many blessings.

So, are we to accept that we can’t always get what we want? Or can we change what we want? I taught a lesson in Sunday school this winter on Self-Control-being happy even when we don’t get our way. I explained it to the kid’s like this: The trick is to have what I want be the same as what God wants and it will be blessed and I will be happy. Simple but not always Easy.

To think of God’s will first helps me get out of my junk, the self-pity, the discouragement and the self-seeking and opens me up to my purpose, my strength and the real point of it all.