In my elementary public school, I remember a worksheet where we were tested on our ability to identify the difference between a need and a want. The sheet had a list of various items. Some of them, like food or clothing, we had to mark as “needs”—while others, like toys or video games, we had to mark as “wants.”

We would probably all agree: this is a good skill for a child to develop. After all, God requires us to properly prioritize our lives—to get the “big rocks” in the jar first, so to speak. However, I think the way my school emphasized this led me to somewhat look down on wanting something not absolutely vital for personal survival. After all, these were just frivolous “wants,” nothing of any importance.

It took me a bit longer to realize: that’s not biblical.

Yes, God does supply our “needs.” Philippians 4:19 says that God will “supply all your need.” Matthew 6:31-34 says that if we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness first, He will supply our food, drink, and clothing. However, He doesn’t stop there.

Psalm 37:4 famously says: “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” The Bible doesn’t tell us to stop desiring things that aren’t bare requirements for survival. Rather, it shows that God wants to give us our desires. Of course, we must first align our desires with God’s: He obviously won’t give us something that He doesn’t want us to have. But God doesn’t want us to simply snuff out all our desires: He wants us to delight ourselves in Him and change our desires to align with His will.

In his article “The Desires of Your Heart,” Gerald Flurry wrote: “[God] wants to fulfill the desires of our heart, little and big. God loves you, and He loves to give to His Family. Deeply consider this. You have desires—some good and, probably, some bad. You need to let God help you, change you, and at times, give you the right desires. … Commit yourself into your Father’s hands. If you do, the Father will give you the desires of your heart. He can hardly wait to do so!” (Royal Vision, May/June 2024).

Actually, this conditional promise is not only found in this verse. Psalm 20:5 says, “… the Lord fulfil all thy petitions”—the exact same Hebrew word used for “desires” in Psalm 37. A different word is used in Psalm 145:19, which says: “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.” Again, we see a condition. But once we fear Him, God promises to fulfill our desires.

Fearing God is something we give special attention to during the Feast of Tabernacles, where we are told to come with our second tithe money to “learn to fear the Lord thy God always” (Deuteronomy 14:23). And what does God tell us to use that tithe money for? “And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth …” (verse 26). As we deepen our fear of God at the Feast, we receive all the physical “wants” we could possibly receive in a week.

As Psalm 145:19 and the Feast of Tabernacles show, there is an inherent connection between learning to fear God and receiving our desires. Do we FEAR God as a Being powerful enough to give us our wants?

Imagine you befriended a great king who had the power to give you whatever you wanted. Naturally, we would do everything we could to respect him and obey what he says. We would stay in constant contact with him, communicate with him frequently, and earnestly seek to delight in what he desires. Because of his great gift-giving power, we would highly value that relationship and protect it at all costs. And then, once we had a desire we knew he would agree with, we would waste no time in asking him for it!

Now, in order to obtain a “want,” there are certain things we subsequently need to do. For example, say we want to run and finish a marathon. We would subsequently need to train regularly, eat healthily, get proper rest, and hydrate well to successfully fulfill that want. The same is true for any of our desires.

Consider: the entire reason that mankind exists is because God wants to have a family. God’s not ashamed of His desires. He had a such a burning desire for a family that He considered it better to take the enormous risk required to make it happen—rather than continue living on in eternity without ever entertaining that thought.

Earlier in Psalm 145, David wrote: “Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (verse 16). God doesn’t just stop at our desires—He seeks to fulfill the desire of every living thing! That’s how much God values our desires.

We shouldn’t look down on our wants simply because we don’t need them for bare human survival. God doesn’t view them that way. If we fear God, delight ourselves in Him, and align our desires with His, then God wants to fulfill those “wants.”

That was a lesson I needed to learn.