Desire before devotion

Why choosing God must come before praising Him and how a walk through ancient Greece made that truth impossible to ignore.

In the reflection I shared last month, I emphasized that we are made for relationship—with God and with others. Scripture affirms this clearly:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
— Matthew 22:37–39

We are commanded to love both God and our neighbors, and God equips us to do just that through His Spirit (Romans 5:5). God calls us into loving relationships—with Him and with one another. One way we express love for God is through praise, which is a powerful acknowledgment of His greatness and sovereignty in our lives.

But over the past month, something even more foundational became clear to me: we must first choose or desire God.

Recently, my wife and I joined 26 others on a pilgrimage to Greece, walking in the footsteps of St. Paul. We began in Athens and visited Corinth, Delphi, and Thessalonica, witnessing firsthand how Paul boldly preached the Gospel to the people of Greece.

Like all the saints, Paul had a strong relationship with God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And like many of them, his devotion ultimately cost him his life. In Paul’s time, Athens was home to the worship of at least twelve gods, and people—Jews, atheists, Hellenists, and others—were entrenched in diverse beliefs. The spiritual confusion of that time is not unlike what we see today.

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When Paul confronted the Athenians, we are told how he began to evangelize a society worshipping false gods:

“For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
— Acts 17:23

Even then, Paul recognized a spiritual hunger in the people. And we can see how the Gospel of Jesus has endured, while many of those ancient religions have faded away:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
— Matthew 24:35

Our journey began by studying how the ancient Greeks expressed their devotion—through sacrifices and rituals to please their gods. Today, museums tell this story through their art, architecture, and cultural practices. They believed proper worship brought favor from gods who controlled the sun, rain, fertility, and military success.

Just like us, the Greeks sensed and sought a connection with a creator. Humanity has always carried a deep, inner longing to be in relationship with God:

“He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:11

We are not only made by God—we are made for God:

“All things were created through him and for him.”
— Colossians 1:16

God placed within us a truth-seeking spirit—a longing for Him that draws us closer.

While it may be easy to judge the ancient Greeks for worshiping false gods, they were often responding to a divine nudge—a longing for God. David describes it this way:

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”
— Psalm 42:1

Even amid their confusion, the Greeks built a culture around a desire for the divine. We are called to obey and nurture that same nudge today.

Another key observation from the trip: ancient Greeks—and many people today—believed they had to earn the favor of their gods. This is what we might call a “performance mentality,” where love is perceived as conditional. We believe we are loved more when we do more. Just as the Greeks offered sacrifices or created grand works of art to gain favor, many of us—especially men—tend to derive our self-worth from providing or achieving.

But the Gospel turns that mindset upside down. We’ve come to know that God is love, and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more—or less. Like it or not, you are deeply loved by God, and nothing can change that.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
— Ephesians 2:8

This month, as we remember and honor all the saints—those who placed their full trust in God and in the sacrifice of Jesus—join me in seeking a deeper longing for God in our lives. Let’s pursue Him not for what He can do for us, but for who He is.

I trust that God will honor that desire and fill us with a joy and peace that only He can give.

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