The Desire of the Righteous: Gospel Today Devotional - 12th, September

Memory Verse: “The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.” - Proverbs 11:23 (KJV)

If you could truly see into the hearts of men to know what occupies their thoughts when no one is watching, what you would find in many cases would be deeply sobering. The Scripture does not leave us to guess. In Genesis 6:5, God's own assessment of the unregenerate human heart is recorded plainly: “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And the prophet Jeremiah adds: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” - (Jeremiah 17:9).

This is the nature of the heart that has not been touched by God. It is not merely prone to evil - it is bent toward it. The thoughts that arise from such a heart, the desires it nurses, the plans it quietly entertains - these are shaped by a nature that does not know God and therefore does not reflect Him.

Jesus Himself confirmed this when He said:

“Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” - Matthew 15:18–19 (KJV)

What a man truly is begins in his heart. What he thinks determines what he says, and what he says reveals what he is. The heart is the source, and everything else flows from it.

Today's lesson draws a sharp and important distinction between two kinds of people, and the line between them runs through the heart. Let us read our passage:

“The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.” - Proverbs 11:23 (KJV)

Read: Today, 12th September in Christian History

The contrast here is striking. On one side: the righteous, whose desires are described as only good. On the other: the wicked, whose expectation is described as wrath. The word “but” in the text is deliberate - it sets these two realities side by side so that the difference between them is unmistakable.

Who are the righteous? Righteousness is not something we have earned or cultivated through our own effort. It is something we have received. Through faith in Jesus Christ - who was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21) - we have been given a new nature. And it is this new nature that produces a new kind of desire.

The Lord Jesus made the connection between nature and fruit abundantly clear: “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” - (Matthew 12:35). What a man produces is a direct expression of what he carries within him. The proof that the divine nature is at work in a believer is seen precisely here in the quality of their desires.

The desire of the righteous is only good. This means that the one who has been born of God does not devise mischief, does not nurse plans of evil, does not entertain thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit. Their heart which has been renewed by the Spirit of God inclines toward what is good, what is pure, what is pleasing to God. This is not simply a moral standard to aspire to; it is a description of what the new nature, operating as God intended, actually produces. God Himself thinks no evil: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” - (Jeremiah 29:11). His children, sharing His nature, bear the same mark.

The wicked, by contrast, can only expect wrath because a life of evil carries its own consequence. That outcome is not arbitrary; it is the natural end of a heart that has never been turned toward God.

Now, having come to God through Christ, you are the righteousness of God in Him. That is who you now are. And because of who you are, your desires ought to be only good - not occasionally or partially, but consistently and entirely. May the Lord help us to live from that reality daily. Amen.

Daily Reflection

There is something deeply practical about Proverbs 11:23 that is easy to miss if we read it too quickly. It does not only describe what the righteous do - it describes what the righteous desire. The distinction matters enormously. Behaviour can be managed and performed. Desire cannot be faked, at least not for long. Desire is what you move toward when no one is watching, what you return to when you are alone with your thoughts, what occupies you when you are not deliberately trying to be something.

This is why the new birth is so essential. God does not merely ask us to change our behaviour - He gives us a new nature that changes what we want. The Spirit of God, dwelling within the believer, works at the level of desire, not just conduct. Paul speaks of this when he writes that God works in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” - (Philippians 2:13). The willing and the desiring is part of what God transforms.

So pause today and honestly examine your desires. Not just your actions but your desires. What do you find yourself wanting when your guard is down? What do your thoughts drift toward in unguarded moments? If there are areas where your desires still run contrary to God's nature, do not be condemned - but do bring them honestly before Him. Ask the Spirit to continue His work in you, right down to the level of what you want.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” - (Psalm 51:10)

Prayer Session

Heavenly Father, I thank You for the miracle of the new birth. I thank You that I am not left to manage my old nature by sheer willpower, but that through faith in Jesus Christ I have been given an entirely new one - Your own righteousness imparted to me, Your own nature at work within me. I am deeply grateful for this gift.

Lord, I come before You today with an honest heart. I acknowledge that not every desire within me has been fully transformed. There are areas where old patterns of thought still try to reassert themselves - old cravings, old tendencies, old ways of thinking that do not reflect who I now am in You. I bring those areas before You today and ask You to do what only You can do: change what I want, not just what I do.

Let the desires of my heart be only good - truly and consistently good. Let me be someone who thinks no evil, devises no mischief, and entertains no thought that grieves Your Spirit. Work in me both to will and to do of Your good pleasure, so that my innermost desires align with Your own heart.

Where I have allowed impure thoughts to linger or given room to desires that belong to the old nature, forgive me and cleanse me. And where Your nature is already bearing fruit in my desires, I give You all the glory.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

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