Desire Change and Change Desires

Desire Change and Change Desires

As a Christian, I have long been challenged to not let my desires choose what I do. This comes from the basic truth that we are broken and sinful people so if we let desire have its way, we get more brokenness and sinful actions. But that basic truth bumps up against another basic truth. Desires drive us.

 A person who has lost all desire is not a person we call whole or healthy. The absent of desire is just as evil as the promotion of desires not in harmony with God’s will. And there is the stabilizing point – God’s will. While some people have a basic objection to “too much passion” others have an issue with too little. God has no trouble with either. But God longs for us to act, with passion, in harmony with the life He has placed in us. A life that often tries to emerge even before it is spiritually alive.

It takes some effort to become aware of our real-life desires. The lessor desires of this world, of momentary needs, of crisis conditions, all mask as important, even urgent. Often it takes a rare moment to open our eyes to see what we truly desire. A moment of revelation as we ponder the night sky, face the terror of a night spent in the ditch during a winter storm or lie in the hospital awaiting surgery, are often the moments of clarity we need. It’s not that these are the only time clear insight is available to us. But it tends to be the times we are available to them.

What do you desire to know, to understand?

What passion for life burns in your heart?

What strong desire do you find placing "on hold" so that you can manage the events of life?

What fear rules your passion?

Face your fears and allow your passions in harmony with the will of God to grow.

Some of the common ones are fear of rejection or failure, fear of looking bad or disappointing others. We may fear success and the responsibility success might bring or fear we are nothing if we are not everything we imagine ourselves to be. Find ways to take action against those fears. Open the door to confronting them in daily life.

For me naming a desire helps to give it life. If I can identify a desire, name it, I can start to see how that desire fits into the will of God. And I can see if I have made boundaries that God has not made. Sometimes we can build fences because we think God is more like our parents, leaders or friends when our parents, leaders, and friends are working hard to be just a small example of God. We miss-judge the God in them we see as all, and not part. Consequently, we often reduce what God is to us by what God in others is being displayed.

If you want to be more alive in this next season, let the desires in union with the will of God for you come alive. Look at your real life, your real situations and look for passions that motivate you. When you find yourself hurting others or out of step with the good people of your life ask God for help identifying motivational passion. You will often find a good desire without boundaries or a desire pursued in an ungodly way, not a bad desire itself.

What kind of person do you want to be?

What things has God put in you to help get you there?

What desires do you have that fear has held captive?

I am not good

But I was made good

And I will be remade good again

I desire it to be so