What Am I Eager For?

Christian living isn’t just having your heart in the right place, but it isn’t less than that. Given that our hearts are “prone to wander,” as the song says, we need multiple ways to conduct “heart checks” on ourselves.

One self-diagnostic is to examine what we’re eager for.

When I was a kid, I looked forward to Christmas every year with great eagerness. It was an accurate reflection of where my heart was!

The word “eager” does not appear in the KJV, but is used in most other English translations. Because the word has several synonyms, the count ranges from 3 (NKJV) to 18 (NIV).

Looking at a sampling of these (from ESV) is convicting. Is this where my heart is?

1. Preaching the gospel

So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (Rom 1:15)



Paul was always thinking, “Where can I take the good news next?” This is a bit more than eagerness to spread the gospel. It’s eagerness to take it somewhere you haven’t personally taken it before. The gospel had already reached Rome—but it hadn’t reached Rome from Paul, in person. He was eager to be personally involved in teaching it, because he loved it. And there’s nothing quite like a new audience.

2. Caring and connecting

Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Gal 2:10)



In the context, the apostle was summarizing the outcomes of a meeting with leadership in Jerusalem. Zooming out a bit further, Paul was making a case to the Galatians that he worked for God, not the other apostles (Gal 1:16-18), but that he worked in coordination with them (Gal 2:9).

The gist is this: The Jerusalem apostles didn’t give me orders. They recognized my authorization by God and only asked me to do something I wanted to do anyway: remember the poor.

“The poor,” were probably “the brothers in Judea” noted in Acts 11:29-30 and referenced in Romans 15:26 and elsewhere (as several commentaries point out). This was not only believers taking care of believers, but also Gentile believers helping Jewish believers.

There is a bit of “social justice warrior” in Paul here—just not the kind we usually think of. Paul wanted to see the reality of believers’ unity in Christ expressed in a strengthening of relationships across ethnic barriers. He was eager for “diversity and inclusion,” but not in order to right social wrongs. He wanted to see the church be the church despite the things that often divide people—like ethnic and cultural background.

So I have to ask, am I eager for that? How much do I care about seeing the church transcend the kinds of differences that humans normally seize upon in order to sort people into “us” and “them”? Am I more eager to divide than to connect?

Speaking of eagerness to strengthen ties between people …

3. Seeking harmony

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:1–3)



There’s a lot going on here. There’s a reminder that being a serious follower of Christ has a cost (“a prisoner”). There’s a reminder that we’re people with a calling to live up to (“walk in a worthy manner of the calling”). There’s a list of attitudes and behaviors that show us what walking worthily looks like.

A prominent feature of authentic Christian living is a zeal for a particular sort of unity: the kind that comes from the Holy Spirit and has peace as a connector (“bond,” sundesmos – “ligaments” in Col 2:19).

Is that where my heart is? Am I eager to be at peace with fellow believers, uniting around the Scriptures given to us by the Spirit (2 Pet 1:21)? Do I see that as integral to walking the walk? Does my eagerness extend to living out the “humility…gentleness…patience” (ESV) and “putting up with” (my translation) that are essential to that kind of unity?

4. Honoring Christ

as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. (Php 1:20)



“Eagerness” can be hard to measure, but here Paul puts it in a balance scale. He weighs it against staying alive. What the scale reveals, in his case, is that his eagerness to use his body to honor God outweighs life itself. Faced with the option to stop honoring God, he would rather die.

If that doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you’re a lot saintlier than I am—or you haven’t let it sink in.

5. Spreading joy

I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. (Php 2:28)



I love that one of the things Paul is eager for here is to just stop worrying: “that I may be less anxious.” This is a beautiful worry, though. Paul is worried because he loves the Philippians, who are worried because they love Epaphroditus, who is worried because the people who love him heard he was sick (Php 2:26).

We can say that’s a lot of worrying or we can say that’s a lot of love. There is a good kind of “anxiety.” It’s inseparable from caring a lot about people (see 2 Cor 11:28-29).

The eagerness here is down to earth. It’s a desire that people not suffer needlessly and that they get to enjoy the company of those they love. It may be simple, but it’s no less challenging for that. Relative to all the cares and concerns of life, how much do I care about seeing others thrive and enjoy the blessing of seeing the people they love thrive?

For sure, to be human is to be full of conflicting desires! But to be Christian is to have specific higher hungers that are prominent in the mix. One way to measure our heart health is to take a hard, honest look at what we’re most eager for.