The psalmist said in Book of Psalms (Psalm 73): “You have held my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And with You I want nothing on earth.”
How beautiful this verse is: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
The one who has loved God, tasted fellowship with Him, experienced life with the Lord, enjoyed the mighty hand of God in his life, and touched the work of God with him—such a person is satisfied with the Lord and says to Him: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
Whoever has tasted the sweetness of life with God cannot at all place anything else beside it in his heart. Otherwise that thing would be like a patch placed on an elegant and beautiful garment.
Those who lived with God felt spiritual fullness. And when God filled them completely, they no longer needed anything.
With this spiritual fullness, every desire becomes trivial beside God. Every lofty wish loses its value, and every lust loses its sweetness. And when God becomes all in all, the soul cries out to Him: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
This cry also applies in terms of the helping power.
Imagine a man standing to fight his enemy with nothing but a stick, a stone, a brick, or a small knife. Then he finds before him a cannon that fires four hundred rounds per minute. He would look at it and say, “With you I want nothing else.” Likewise, the person who stands with divine power beside him needs nothing on earth.
This Verse in Human Life
Adam was alone in paradise with God and lacked nothing. Perhaps he praised the Lord saying, “With You I want nothing on earth.” Then God created for him Eve, and afterward the tree of knowledge was placed before him.
Man began to desire things beside God. He desired the forbidden fruit, desired knowledge, and desired to become like God. God was no longer the only One filling his life.
Man began to seek many things for his pleasure. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life entered him. Love of material things, love of the world, and love of the self entered him. And that beautiful song was lost: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
God was no longer all in all in our lives. Many things crept into the mind, into life, and into the heart, spreading their influence and establishing themselves beside God.
Suppose a man loves his wife very much and lives happily with her. Certainly this husband finds his pleasure beside her and wants nothing else with her. But if this husband finds his pleasure outside the home—with his friends, in cafés, in clubs, on outings, in cinema, in playing cards, and in sitting by the radio and television—then undoubtedly he has left his first love, and his wife no longer fills his life as before. So it is also with life with God.
If you experience God, you say as David said: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Why do you lack nothing? Because God has become the One filling my life, filling my heart, filling my mind, filling my whole being. With Him I do not feel need, nor feel lack. I lack nothing.
When the Lord Jesus Christ sent His disciples, He trained them in this matter and said to them: “Do not carry gold or silver or copper in your belts, nor bag for the journey, nor anything for the road.”
Why, Lord? Because I am with you on the road.
Later He asked them: when I sent you without bag or provisions, did you lack anything? They said no. “With You we want nothing on earth.”
You, Lord, are my purse and my provision. You are my gold and my silver. You are my strength and my praise. You are everything to me. As long as You are with me, the whole universe is nothing before me. You alone are enough for me.
Believe me, the angels in heaven are astonished when they see us asking for many worldly things, while it was supposed that we ask for God alone and say to Him:
Lord, we want nothing—only You. We want You to fill our lives, and then we will need nothing.
You will open to us the powers of heaven until we say: enough, enough. Enough of earthly goods, O Lord. We want You. We want nothing descending from heaven except You—Your Holy Spirit, Your grace, Your fellowship with us. As for worldly matters, enough of them. With You we want nothing on earth.
On earth only? No—even in heaven.
What is the eternal bliss I seek? The bliss is You. You are what eye has not seen and ear has not heard. The kingdom is You. I want nothing in the kingdom except You alone. Eternal bliss is nothing outside of God.
Everything outside God is not true joy. The joy of eternity is God Himself. He is the eternal bliss.
We ask only for God. If we ask for anything else, the angels marvel. That is why the Lord said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Seek that God reign over you, fill your hearts and lives, become your desire and your joy. Then all the other things will be added to you.
You cannot gather God and the world together—light and darkness.
We cannot serve two masters. Either this or that. If the Lord is God, worship Him; and if Baal is god, worship him, as Elijah said. There is no fellowship between light and darkness. God is light that cannot be approached, and sin is darkness that people loved more than light. Therefore we cannot combine worldly desires with God.
That is why in the hymn you say: “I have no opinion, no thought, and no other desire except to follow You.”
Because you cannot place anything else in your heart beside God, Scripture said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
If He fills all your heart, then with Him you want nothing on earth. But if you want something else, the heart will not belong entirely to God. How deep the error of the evil popular proverb that says: “An hour for your heart and an hour for your Lord.” It separated the Lord from the heart. And also because whoever gives an hour of his heart to the world has not yet tasted the divine delight.
Our holy fathers, when they lived with the Lord and tasted His sweetness, found it easy to leave everything for His sake.
Abraham, the father of the fathers, was told by the Lord: “Leave your people, your relatives, your country, and your father’s house, and go to the mountain that I will show you.” So he left everything and went after God with that beautiful song in his heart: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
Later he longed to have a son. For this son he took Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah. When the Lord gave him Isaac and his heart became attached to him, the same test returned. God said: “Take your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and offer him to Me as a burnt offering on the mountain I will show you.”
Abraham did not object. He rose early and took Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice, saying in his heart to God: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
When Abraham showed this feeling, God promised him descendants like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. Yet despite all this multitude, God would still fill all the heart so that with Him you want nothing on earth.
How amazing is this sufficiency in God in the hearts of His saints. Look at David:
He was a king, commander of the army, judge of the people, had eight wives and many sons. Yet the desire of his heart was not in all these but in God alone:
“One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”
David loved God, and with Him wanted nothing on earth.
Thus the children of God used the world, but the world did not use them. They possessed money, but money did not possess them. God was all their wealth, and with Him they wanted nothing on earth.
God filled the heart, the mind, the eyes, and the life. He also fills eternity afterward. No saint could place anything beside Him. There is no fellowship between light and darkness.
Thus we see a saint like Paul the Apostle saying:
“I have lost all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
I lost everything because with You I want nothing on earth. I count them rubbish because everything beside You is rubbish. I did not regret leaving any of them. Even what was gain to me I counted loss, and I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
That I may gain Christ and be found in Him.
I lost everything so that “for me to live is Christ.” How? “So that I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
Even this “I” I lost, because I did not want it on earth. I do not want even myself beside Him but in Him. “He who finds his life will lose it.” Therefore the first virtue for anyone who follows Christ is to deny himself.
Whoever loves Christ does not allow a rival in his heart.
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Therefore the apostles and saints left everything and followed Christ. Peter the Apostle left the nets and the boat, Matthew the Apostle left the tax office, and the Samaritan woman left the water jar—because with Him they wanted nothing on earth.
There was a woman who lost herself because she desired something on earth: the wife of Lot. God sent her an angel and brought her out of Sodom, commanding her not to stop in all the plain. But while the Lord was leading her in the path of salvation, she looked back because there was something she desired in that land. She perished and became a pillar of salt. She is a lesson.
But Lot left everything and benefited from the old lesson he had received. He did not look at anything on earth, nor even at his wife. Let the city burn, Lord, and all my possessions there burn—only let You remain mine. Then I will lack nothing.
It is enough that You remain for me and I remain for You. With You I want nothing on earth. You are everything to me.
This is the life the saints lived—especially the Fathers of the Desert.
They sold everything they owned in order to possess God alone. They lived a life of detachment like the merchant who found a precious pearl and sold everything he had to buy it. That pearl is life with God—it is God Himself. When the merchant obtained that pearl, he said to the Lord: “With You I want nothing on earth.”
These fathers left relatives, friends, possessions, and everything—even their thoughts. They did not want their minds to be attached except to God alone.
As Isaac the Syrian said: “Monasticism is detachment from everything in order to be united with the One.”
He is united with the One because He is all he wants. He is detached from everything because with Him he wants nothing on earth.
Martha was anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary of Bethany chose that one thing—the good portion that will not be taken away from her.
There are saints who wanted nothing on earth, even more than monks: our martyr fathers. They did not even want life itself.
Some martyrs left kingdoms, others left wealth, honor, and titles. They also left family and loved ones. They stripped themselves of everything—even of noble human emotions—and overcame the love of children and parents. They detached even from themselves and offered their lives saying: “With You I want nothing.”
It is the virtue of sufficiency in God which the saints lived by.
If God becomes everything for you, He also becomes your strength, blessing, defender, and helper. Then you will fear nothing.
David, while still a young boy, went to meet Goliath the giant who terrified the entire army. They offered David armor, sword, and spear, but he left them all because with God he wanted nothing on earth.
You, Lord, are my weapon with which I defeat Goliath.
Peter the Apostle had neither gold nor silver to give the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. But he had the name of the Lord Jesus, which is more precious than all the gold of the earth. By that name he healed the lame man. As if he said: Your name is enough for me; with it I want nothing on earth.
This spiritual experience was also the apostles’ experience in preaching.
Mark the Evangelist went to Egypt. There were Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods, Greek philosophy, military authority, the Library of Alexandria and its philosophers, and also the Jewish religion. What did you need, Mark? Studies in all these fields? No. I only need the Lord and His power. With Him I want nothing on earth.
I will enter Egypt barefoot, with torn shoes, without preparation. After a few years Egypt will become Christian.
If I needed anything besides God, my faith would be weak. God alone is enough. With Him I want nothing. In Him are all blessing, power, and help.
Those who found their sufficiency in God lived in peace.
They feared nothing and needed nothing. They lived under the shelter of the Most High and in the shadow of the Almighty. They walked with the Lord upon the water. Even if they fell into the depths of the sea, the Lord raised them up like Peter.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III — published in El‑Kiraza Magazine, Year 8 (Issue 42), 21-10-1977.
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With You I Want Nothing on Earth