Desires & Hurdles
Our natural tendency it seems is to wish that life was easy, without problems, and where we get everything we want without a struggle. That sounds a lot like heaven to me or like the images I have in my mind about heaven. I am not sure that even heaven will be without challenges. The reason I suggest such an idea is that problems, conflicts and challenges are what motivate us to grow. To be more specific, hurdles standing in the way of what we want, forcing us to overcome them to get what we want is what motivates us to tackle them and in doing so, we grow. Let’s put a few simple thoughts together about growing through taking the challenges in life. This article will discuss our desires which are the root motivation of the human soul, our problems that stand in the way of what we want and finally overcoming our problems by developing new skills and strength to obtain what we want.
Designed to Desire
God’s Design – Needs
First, it is important to understand that God designed the human soul to have needs. God made us with needs, some that only he can meet and some that other people are intended to meet. For example, only God can meet our spiritual needs and only another person can meet our marital needs. Keeping these needs separate is rather important because we don’t want to confuse how these different needs are met. Look to God for what he provides and look to God to provide the right people for what man can give us.
Needs Feel Like Wants
Our needs are experienced within us as desires. Our God given needs feel like longings, hunger, yearnings, cravings ie desires. The bible makes it very clear that it is desire that motivates us to action. We have desires that are sinful and that we choose to fulfill through sinful actions. If we are saved and growing spiritually, the Spirit will also produce desires in us to please God and to love God. If we are discussing our sin life or our spiritual life, desire as an expression of our legitimate needs is what drives us to action to meet our needs. A clear passage teaching this concept is Gal 5:16-17.
Gal 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, & you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, & the Spirit against the flesh; for these oppose one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
Desires of the Spirit
The Spirit defeats the flesh and both the flesh and the Spirit produce desires as motivators of actions. When we embrace the desires created by the Spirit and walk by means of what He says, we will say no to the desires of the sin nature and act to please God. Notice that it is by giving in to desires, the desires produced by GHS that we win the war against the sin nature. A point to ponder, focus on what you want, the wants that God puts in your heart, not the desires you feel apart from Him and your actions will follow His will and you will please Him. The point of this article is that the desires we feel inside us are what motivate us to take all the actions we choose all of our lives. We, by design, want and use our wants to guide what we think, say and do.
Growing Through Adversity
Too Easy = Boring
The second idea to think on is that there are always problems that stand in the way of us getting what we want. Dang it!! You say, I wish life were easier and that nothing would stand in my way of me getting everything I want. I want it all and I want it now!! Yet life would be so boring if it were that easy. We would wish for something and there it would be for the picking, without any effort and therefore without any growth.
God Given Hurdles
Those things that stand in the way of what we want are the God given hurdles that He uses to inspire us to grow. To get what we want, we have to find a way over, around or through the problem. To get past the hurdle, we often have to use what we have learned and bring it online in real life. For example, God has given us promises that correspond to every problem in life that when used by faith to face these problems will give us total victory over them. It is the hurdle in our way that caused us to use the promise, to believe it to deal with the problem that allowed us to see it work and therefore expose God’s power and faithfulness. Without the problem to overcome, we would not have had to use the promise and we would not have seen God’s power work through His promises. The problem blocking our desires was actually God’s grace gift that caused us to grow in our knowledge of His power invested in His promises. Thank God for our problems, in fact James says they are an occasion for great joy when we visualize the good He will bring about through them.
James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
God Given Imagination
Consider is the Greek word hegeomai meaning to guide your imagination or to purposely choose the images you visualize in your mind and the ideas you verbalize in your mind. God promises to use everything in life to produce divine good (Rom 8:28), even our difficulties. When problems occur, James says that if we will intentionally visualize and verbalize God creating this good, it will bring us joy. He also explains that the adversities are the hurdles that exercise our faith making us stronger in endurance and building us into the mature, complete Christian warrior ready for battle and able to overcome and obtain the desires the Spirit has put in our hearts.
Grace Giving
Problems standing in the way of our goals make us grow to overcome them. When we grow, we gain strength, knowledge, wisdom and most importantly, we grow in our capacity to love, forgive and give to others in grace. We grow in our ability to relate to our loved ones in ways that help them grow and in ways that build them up, not tear them down. Giving in grace means to give expecting nothing in return. Just like God gives to us, with no strings attached, His only desire is that we accept His gifts and benefit from them. One of God’s goals for us is that we develop the capacity to give like He gives, generously without reservation, freely without hesitation, confidently without fear of having enough for ourselves and in grace, expecting nothing in return. Giving without expecting a return is called grace giving.
God’s Promises are Grace Gifts
God’s promises are gifts that he gives all of His children, earned by the work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. These gifts are freely given and His only desire is that we use them and benefit from them. He never wants us to feel like we owe Him in return for letting us use His promises, He only desires what is best for us and only desires that we accept what He offers. Again, giving to help others, expecting nothing back is called grace giving. We please Him by taking His promises and using them by faith to enjoy total victory over every problem found in the devil’s world. We further please Him by understanding His grace giving and choosing to become grace givers as imitators of Christ. Our problems are a necessary part of building the capacity to give in grace. Rejoice that God loves us enough to give us problems that inspire us to grow to be like Him, grace givers.
Today is the Day
To finish, today is a good day to stop complaining about the problems and hurdles God has allowed into your path. Today is a good day to finally believe what he has said in His word and apply the principle that He uses all things for good. Our problems, even those we have self-induced are part of God’s plan to grow us into His own image, like His son Jesus Christ. A life without problems would be a life without growth, a life without change and we would stay the same losers in Adam for life. It is time to see our problems as opportunities to prove out God’s promises by using them to overcome the devil’s schemes to tear s down. He wants us to lose heart, complain and fold up. He wants us to use our own abilities to deal with life so that he can neutralize our witness and cause us blend in with his people in the world. Today is the day to stand firm against his schemes by trusting God for what He has promised. Today is the day to believe that your problems are God’s gift to make you a grace giver like Jesus.
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