Desire Denied?

Did you get EVERYTHING you wanted for Christmas? Regardless of how you answer that question the fact is we all had and have desires. But I am not writing to see if you had a good Christmas but to explore something a little deeper. I want you to think about your desires in general. Have you ever stopped to think about what really drives your life? What is it you really want? What gets you out of bed in the morning and gets you through the long days of difficulties and challenges? What excites you? What ignites you? What brings you pleasure?

Some may quickly assert that they live for the Lord and, "I live my life for His desire and pleasure". I used to think that. I thought that because He saved me, the least I could do is give up all my pleasures here on earth, to serve Him now and later I get heaven as a reward for what I gave up on earth. That is flawed thinking with a bad theology as well. It is meant to produce selflessness but in fact does just the opposite while producing joyless unproductive lives in those who embrace it.

Listen to these words by CS Lewis,
"If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of
the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you
asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied,
Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted
for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The
negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily
of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves,as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I
do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament
has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in
itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order
that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall
ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our
own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing,
I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is
no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing
promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised
in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too
strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with
drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an
ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because
he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
We are far too easily pleased."

You may have to read and reread his words slowly and carefully but please do so. It is pregnant with truth and power to liberate your desires to the place God intended them to be. The truth is your heart is a factory of desires. You can fight them, repress them, deny them, even make "mud pies" with them. But God gave you this capability for a reason. To glorify Him. Why make a mud pie when you can have "infinite joy"? Listen I've eaten my share of mud pies and so have most of you. But the greatest joy I've ever known is when I have set my desire toward Him and just enjoyed His blessing in my life. How do I glorify Him? By ENJOYING Him and ALL he has provided in my life.

John Piper said it best, "That God is most glorified in me when I am most
satisfied in Him continues to be a spectacular and precious truth in my mind
and heart." There is a place in God where your satisfaction in Him transcends circumstances and difficulties in your life. Paul the Apostle went through every difficulty one could imagine yet he said “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Can two things as opposite as these coexist in the human heart? Certainly. The enemy tries to divert and distract the human heart and its' desires by creating a sense of DIS-satisfaction through our present circumstances. It is important we find a contentment in Christ and if things are not as you like them don't settle for LESS! Let your desires drive you to Him in an unprecedented manner to find ALL He has promised to you!

His will is that you book passage on this ship called life and ENJOY the journey. This may be a strange illustration but it makes the point. I was listening to an interview from a professional football player whose team had just made the playoffs. The reporter was asking him about the next game which had no playoff implications for his team and if he thought that they should rest as many players as possible for the game seeing it didn't mean anything. His answer was revealing. He said, "We have already got our ticket to the dance but now we are playing for the best seat..." You see they had made the playoffs but a win meant a first week bye where they would get an extra week to prepare for the first playoff game.

You have already got a ticket on this cruise ship called life. Your living and fighting for a better seat! I love to sail but I don't want to settle for an INSIDE little cabin when I can have an expansive cabin with a VIEW! Face it we ALL want a better seat! A nicer room. A room with a BALCONY! Don't deny your desires, just turn them toward Him and realize that He is glorified by how much I am enjoying the trip! I hope 2011 is the year you breakout of your present circumstance and find a deep satisfaction and pleasure in the Lord. That this year you trade your inside cabin for a BALCONY STATEROOM in Jesus!

This is an attitude of the heart and not a material possession. This is not a matter of WHAT I have but WHO I am living for. This is an issue of JOY and joy is a PERSON and not a circumstance. Make Him your desire and watch Him work in your life:
"Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart..."