I am convinced that there are times God gives us exactly what we want, not because it is a good thing for us, but because he is giving us over to that thing as a judgement. There can be times we ask, push and go after things that God would keep us from. The thing may be an otherwise neutral thing that God, in his goodness, is keeping us from. It may be an ostensibly good thing that simply wouldn’t be good for us. It may be a bad thing, that would be bad for anyone, but we have decided it looks particularly good. Sometimes God gives us the desires of our heart so that we can see just how unappealing it is.

The Lord did this specifically to his people in Israel:

But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel did not obey me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own plans. – Psalm 81:11-12

But he appears to do this in the New Covenant too:

because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. – Romans 1:28

You can read the rest of Romans 1 to see how God might give people over to different things. The very going after of these things, and then getting them, is itself a judgement upon them. That seems to be what Paul is referring to when he says they ‘received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.’ The very things that they do, they very natural consequences of their choices, constitute a judgement of their own.

Of course, Psalm 81 and Romans 1 are both concerned with those going after sinful behaviours. They are, frankly, the sort of outward sinful behaviours that most Christians rightly understand to be a problem. Few of us who claim to love Jesus will be literally bowing down to Baals nor engaging in some of the more base aspects of Romans 1.

Where we are more likely to hit upon problems is less in the going after specific sinful behaviours – though I don’t pretend that we are immune from that – but rather that we will be driven by sinful desires and motives towards ostensibly good or neutral things for bad reasons. The Lord, in his goodness, may keep us from those things – knowing that they wouldn’t be good or helpful to us – but if we continue pushing and pursuing them, he may well simply give us over to them, grant us the very desire of our hearts, and leave us with all the unhappy consequences of pursuing what our good heavenly Father reckoned would do us no good at all.

One thing the Bible speaks about a lot, which may have a tendency to cause this, is money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with money. The Bible in many places presents wealth as a good gift from God. But if God has, for whatever reason, kept us from great wealth, we must trust that he is keeping us from it for our own good. Whether he knows what it would do to us in particular or he is aware that our particular character will not cope without seeing to amass more and more, God may be keeping us from it for our own good. But if we continue pursuing it and seeking it and chasing after it, God may eventually give us over to it altogether. We might not imagine becoming rich being much of a judgement, but stories abound of those tormented by the pursuit of money and the Bible gives us enough examples of how the spiritual lives of those with wealth were often derailed, it certainly isn’t the unmitigated blessing we often think it is.

Position and status is another way these things may come up. For many, they have a desire to be recognised as elders and pastors in the church. Again, for whatever reason, the Lord may keep people from the role knowing either how it will affect them or what it may do to them. But again, a desire to push and push for it may mean that the Lord eventually gives it to us. Though the one who aspires to be an elder desires a noble thing, the role itself is a perfectly good thing, but we may find when the Lord gives it to us that what we were pursuing, and the reasons we pursued it, do not live up to expectation. We may even find the role causes us such great grief and difficulties that we did not reckon with that it may prove to be a real problem to us in our walk with Jesus.

There are countless ways this might play out. Things that are otherwise good or neutral that we chase after and desire – that the Lord has been keeping us from for our own good – that he eventually gives to us. In the end, he may give them to us so that we realise the Lord was keeping us from the things for our good, not to ruin our fun. He isn’t saying the thing is bad, but that it perhaps is not good for us. He isn’t saying the thing should be avoided, but that we would walk better with the Lord Jesus and our good better served by not having the thing. When God gives us the thing we desire, it may prove to be a judgement in and of itself.

In the end, we should thank God when he doesn’t give us the desires of our heart or the thing that we prayed for. We should trust that he knows best. He knows what work for his kingdom we are best suited to and what blessings would be more a snare to our hearts than for our ultimate good. Let us give thanks for those things God keeps us from and let us pay attention, if and when we get them and they prove to be hard, that the thing itself may be a judgement upon us.