68. This Question Will Guide Your Life

What do you really want?

According to the Gospel of John, that's the first question Jesus asks His would-be disciples:

“What do you want?”

In this reflection on Psalm 1, John Ortberg explores why that may be one of the most important questions we ever answer.

Our lives have a way of organizing themselves around our deepest desires.

How do you spend your time?

Your money?

What makes you angry?

What are you willing to sacrifice for?

Those things often reveal what we want more accurately than our words do.

Psalm 1 gives us a picture of a different kind of life: a flourishing person, like a tree planted beside streams of water, with roots sunk deeply into God.

And John closes with the remarkable story of Natan Sharansky, who spent years imprisoned in the Soviet Union and memorized the entire Book of Psalms.

When he was finally released, Sharansky refused to cross the bridge to freedom until his captors returned his copy of the Psalms.

What we fill our minds with matters.

Because what fills our minds helps shape what we desire.

So today, ask yourself:

What do I really want?

And:

What am I filling my mind with?

In this episode:

• The first question Jesus asks in John's Gospel
• How our lives reveal what we actually want
• Psalm 1 and the meaning of “blessed”
• What biblical flourishing looks like
• The tree planted beside streams of water
• Why invisible roots matter
• The progression of walking, standing and sitting
• Why Psalm 1 isn't a formula for easy circumstances
• How inner goodness crowds out envy and greed
• Natan Sharansky's remarkable story
• How the Psalms sustained him through Soviet imprisonment
• Why what we fill our minds with shapes our lives

Scriptures:
 John 1:35–38 • Psalm 1 • Acts 20:35 • Matthew 7:12

#Psalm1 #JohnOrtberg #Psalms #Jesus #SpiritualFormation #Flourishing #BibleStudy #ChristianFaith #Prayer #NatanSharansky

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Music Credits:

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00:00 What Do You Want?
 00:27 The First Question Jesus Asked
 00:39 What Your Life Reveals About You
 01:06 What Do You REALLY Want?
 01:31 What Kind of Person Do You Want to Be?
 01:53 Living With Blinders On
 02:10 When Nothing Feels Worth Wanting
 02:40 Psalm 1 & the Blessed Life
 03:05 What Does “Blessed” Mean?
 03:32 A Tree Planted by Streams of Water
 03:54 Two Ways to Live
 04:14 The Roots Nobody Sees
 04:40 Rooted and Nourished by God
 05:03 The Challenge of Translating Hebrew
 05:49 “Let's Eat, Kids”
 06:18 Psalm 1 Guides Us Toward Happiness
 06:43 Walk, Stand, Sit
 07:14 Why Goodness Is Easy to Mock
 07:37 Psalm 1 Isn't a Formula
 07:59 What Inner Goodness Does
 08:23 What Do You Want?
 08:33 What Will You Fill Your Mind With?
 08:38 Natan Sharansky's Story
 09:15 A Book of Psalms in a Soviet Prison
 09:40 Three Ways He Survived Solitary Confinement
 10:01 Memorizing the Entire Book of Psalms
 10:31 He Refused Freedom Without His Psalms
 10:54 Zigzagging Across the Bridge to Freedom
 11:17 Carrying the Psalms to Jerusalem
 11:34 What Will You Carry in Your Mind?