'Desire' in the Bible

But go and learn what this means, 'It is mercy that I desire, not sacrifice'; for I did not come to appeal to the righteous, but to sinners."

And if you knew what this means, 'It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice', you would not have condemned those who are without guilt.

So some one told Him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and desire to speak to you."

"O woman," replied Jesus, "great is your faith: be it done to you as you desire." And from that moment her daughter was restored to health.

"Why do you ask me," He replied, "about what is good? There is only One who is truly good. But if you desire to enter into Life, keep the Commandments."

"If you desire to be perfect," replied Jesus, "go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have wealth in Heaven; and come, follow me."

"What is it you desire?" He asked. "Command," she replied, "that these my two sons may sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your Kingdom."

The girl immediately came in, in haste, to the King and made her request. "My desire is," she said, "that you will give me, here and now, on a dish, the head of John the Baptist."

and He said, "Abba! my Father! all things are possible for Thee: take this cup of suffering away from me: and yet not what I desire, but what Thou desirest."

"I came to throw fire upon the earth, and what is my desire? Oh that it were even now kindled!

And, besides all this, a vast chasm is immovably fixed between us and you, put there in order that those who desire to cross from this side to you may not be able, nor any be able to cross over from your side to us.'

How is it possible for you to believe, while you receive glory from one another and have no desire for the glory that comes from the only God?

The father whose sons you are is the Devil; and you desire to do what gives him pleasure. *He* was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth--for there is no truth in him. Whenever he utters his lie, he utters it out of his own store; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

"Father, those whom Thou hast given me--I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see the glory--my glory--my gift from Thee, which Thou hast given me because Thou didst love me before the creation of the world.

"If I desire him to remain till I come," replied Jesus, "what concern is that of yours? You, yourself, must follow me."

Hence the report spread among the brethren that that disciple would never die. Yet Jesus did not say, "He is not to die," but, "If I desire him to remain till I come, what concern is that of yours?"

But if you desire anything further, it will have to be settled in the regular assembly.

And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed--in order that among you also I might gather some fruit from my labours, as I have already done among the rest of the Gentile nations.

For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do.

But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law,

For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.

But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

For judges and magistrates are to be feared not by right-doers but by wrong-doers. You desire--do you not? --to have no reason to fear your ruler. Well, do the thing that is right, and then he will commend you.

Every one of you already has all that heart can desire; already you have grown rich; without waiting for us, you have ascended your thrones! Yes indeed, would to God that you had ascended your thrones, that we also might reign with you!

Not that we want to lord it over you in respect of your faith--we do, however, desire to help your joy--for in the matter of your faith you are standing firm.

But we desire to let you know, brethren, of the grace of God which has been bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia;

But in this matter I give you an opinion; for my doing this helps forward your own intentions, seeing that not only have you begun operations, but a year ago you already had the desire to do so.

And more than that, he is the one who was chosen by the vote of the Churches to travel with us, sharing our commission in the administration of this generous gift to promote the Lord's glory and gratify our own strong desire.

But I will persist in the same line of conduct in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who desire an opportunity of getting themselves recognized as being on a level with us in the matters about which they boast.

See, I am now for the third time prepared to visit you, but I will not be a dead weight to you. I desire not your money, but yourselves; for children ought not to put by for their parents, but parents for their children.

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may not find you to be what I desire, and that you may find me to be what you do not desire; that perhaps there may be contention, jealousy, bitter feeling, party spirit, ill-natured talk, backbiting, undue eulogy, unrest;

All who desire to display their zeal for external observances try to compel you to receive circumcision, but their real object is simply to escape being persecuted for the Cross of Christ.

I am in a dilemma, my earnest desire being to depart and be with Christ, for that is far, far better.

For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire.

Therefore put to death your earthward inclinations--fornication, impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire, and all greed, for that is a form of idolatry.

It is with this view also that we continually pray to our God for you, asking that He will count you worthy of His call, and by His mighty power fully gratify your every desire for what is truly good and make your work of faith complete;

This was not because we had not a claim upon you, but it arose from a desire to set you an example--for you to imitate us.

In the same way, since it was God's desire to display more convincingly to the heirs of the promise how unchangeable His purpose was,

Keep on praying for us; for we are sure that we have clear consciences, and we desire to live nobly in every respect.

The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise, in the sense in which some men speak of slowness. But He bears patiently with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance.

For this reason, if I come, I shall not forget his conduct, nor his idle and mischievous talk against us. And he does not stop there: he not only will not receive the brethren, but those who desire to do this he hinders, and excludes them from the Church.

I desire to remind you--although the whole matter is already familiar to you--that the Lord saved a people out of the land of Egypt, but afterwards destroyed those who had no faith.