What God thinks about our desires…….

You have given him his heart’s desire and have

not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

[pause, and think of that]! Psalm 21: 2 (Amplified)

 

A very interesting passage of scripture if you ask me.

As I read it I thought about desire. What role does

desire play in the life of a believer?

What does God think about our desires?

I guess that’s the most important question.

If we are going to talk about desire we need

to talk about disappointment. How many times

desire has come only to be disappointed……

but is that God’s plan?

 

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you

the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:3

 

The thing a wicked man fears shall come upon

him, but the desire of the [uncompromisingly]

righteous shall be granted. Proverbs 10:24

 

May He give you the desire of your heart and

make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4

 

I think you will agree with me that God wants

us to have desires.

I may even dare say that some of the desires you

have where given to you by God…!!!

 

This is my point, don’t abandon desire. It is

not wrong to have desires.

 

The pharisees did away with desire. They were

into following rules and traditions. All I am saying

is that, God wants to give you the desires of

your heart.

But desire is much too complex to end here.

It is your responsibility to bring your desires

before God. You can pick up desires from the

wrong things and that is why you need

to bring them to God. An unchecked desire

is a dangerous thing so be careful.

 

Let’s look at the Psalms 21:2 again:

 

You have given him his hearts desire

and have not withheld the request of

his lips. Selah [pause, and think of that]

 

David may have written this Psalm so

he may be talking about himself.

If that’s so then God gave him his hearts

desire and never withheld his the request

of his lips!!! That is amazing right….

 

Are you talking to God about the desires

that are in your heart or have you buried

them deep, so deep that you don’t

even know what they are? You have not

allowed yourself to desire because you

fear being disappointed.

My advice to you is, don’t abandon

desire. There is a chance it might be

thwarted but desire anyway. That

could just mean it was not of God.

Don’t be afraid of your desires.

Stand them up to the word of God and

let them go if they are not from God.

He has given you the desires of your

heart and His desire is that they be

fulfilled…..

 

Rolain

 

 

 

Living a life of passion.

I want to be someone who is driven by passion. I don’t want to waste away in the dark because I have no convictions and no drive…….I want to be so passionate that it will be what wakes me up in the morning. So passionate that I will not want to be idle! So passionate that the thing I am passionate about consumes my entire being. So passionate that every fiber of my being is infected! So passionate that people get uncomfortable around me….

Jesus was a passionate person. He was driven by passion.
He was passionate about God. So passionate that he obeyed Him even to death! He didn’t have to die but He did. Yes He loved us but He loved God,  loved Him enough to die!!!
He was passionate about the church, so passionate that He sat down and made a cord of whips and drove people out of the temple…..!
He was passionate about people. He was so passionate that it didn’t matter who they were or what time they would come to Him. He always made time for people. His heart broke for people, He wept for people, He gave His life to save people!
I hope you are starting to see how passionate He was. He wants us to have that same passion! A passion that cannot be extinguished. A passion that impacts the world! Jesus impacted the world forever because He was passionate. The Pharisees tried to stop Him but their efforts were futile! A passionate person cannot be stopped. We live in a world that needs the light of Christ. But that light will shine through passionate people. People who are passionate for God! People who are willing for God to use them. People who are passionate about the things God is passionate about! Are you that person?

Rolain

A lesson to learn from the Pharisees concerning children…

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that a riot was imminent, he took a basin of water and washed his hands in full sight of the crowd, saying, “I’m washing my responsibility for this man’s death. From now on, it’s in your hands. you’re the judge and jury.”                                                                                                                                                         The crowd answered, We’ll take the blame, we and our children after us.” Matthew 27:24, 25    (The Message)

The Pharisees were out of control. They had no clue what they were doing. I could of understood if they condemned themselves but they went on to condemn their children. That was not on…..you can’t just say that!!!!                                                                                                                                              But there is a lesson to be learnt from this. The Pharisees actions were going to affect the next generation to come. The problem is, the Pharisees  spoke but the children couldn’t object. They were either too young or not born yet. Whatever the case it was wrong.

I have to confess something though. I am up in arms about the Pharisees response because I read one of my other favourite scriptures a few days ago. This is what it says,

 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!

 For He has strengthened and made hard the bars of your gates, and He has blessed your children within you.        Psalm 147:12, 13

What an amazing scripture this is. God has blessed my children within me!!! It’s such a wonderful truth. If you are single and not yet married know that God has blessed your children within you. If you are married and you have kids then know that your kids are blessed and they were blessed by God a long time ago. I hope you can see why I am not happy about what the Pharisees did. Their children had been blessed by God but they were bringing a curse on them. What did they do to deserve that? This a warning to us as well. Yes God has blessed our children within us but we have a responsibility to grow them up in the ways of the Lord. We have to pave the way for them. We need to pray for our kids and teach them and guide them. As a single person you have to watch yourself. What you do determines how your kids will grow up. If you commit adultery you are going to make it harder for them. If you go to jail for murder or if you steal you are just going to make it harder for them. We have a part to play in this. God will hold us responsible if we don’t take this seriously.

I am going to do my part by asking for God’s help in the areas I am struggling in. I will try and live a life of purity. I will seek God and make sure He is always first so that when my kids come I can teach them the way correctly. I know God has great things in store for them and I want to prepare them as much as I can. I want them to trust God completely, I want them to be confident in who God has called them to be. I want them to love God with all of their hearts. I know it’s not just a want of mine but a desire, a declaration. They will do great things for God because He has blessed them. They will love and trust the Lord with all their hearts but I have a part to play. You have a part to play. The word says, “He has blessed your children within you”.

The life you live is not just for you. It’s so much bigger than you. God bless….

Rolain

 

They truly missed it……….

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium (judgement hall, governor’s palace). And it was early. They themselves did not enter the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled (become ceremonially unclean), but might be fit to eat the Passover [supper].
John 18: 28

I was reading this verse when it occurred to me how far off the mark the pharisees were. They did not enter the Praetorium because they didn’t want to defile themselves!! If they defiled themselves they would not be able to partake of the Passover meal. Are you serious???!!!!  Didn’t they know the Passover was a shadow of Christ? They had the Messiah with them, the sacrificial Passover lamb but they didn’t realize it!!!!

That got me thinking about the Pharisees. How did they get so blind? We can learn a lot from them for sure. The one thing that came to mind was law and tradition. To the pharisees everything was about law and tradition. You had to do this and do that. Wash your hands in this way, pray this way, you have to, you have to……
And because of that attitude their hearts became hardened. Grace was not part of their vocabulary.
We need to be careful. Are we living by law or by grace?

Now a great crowd of the Jews heard that He was in Bethany, and they came there, not only because of Jesus but that they also might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also,  John 12:9, 10

The Pharisees were out of control and they were supposed to be spiritual leaders!!!
Another attitude that contributed to their crazy behavior was the fact that they thought works was enough! They relied on their own strength to get them to heaven. They thought by doing, they could obtain salvation. They prayed, tithed, went to church, memorized scripture, fasted, all because they thought it would impress God…..How wrong they were. Our works in the sight of God, are like filthy rags! Works are not enough.

Something else to notice about is this, to the pharisees everything was about what you could see. They focused all their attention on the external instead of what was on the inside. They measured themselves and other people on outward appearances!!! They ignored the heart. They never searched their own hearts. They never realized their hearts and become hardened. What a shame.

All these things blinded them. They blinded them and hardened their hearts. Let us be careful how we walk. Ask God for wisdom. Let us not be like the Pharisees who missed God. We can easily be misguided just like the them. Let us be aware of the enemies devices…….

Rolain