Setting Standards for Feelings - Desire

Greetings Dear Reader,

For years food was my enemy.  I thought nothing of eating much more than I needed.  I hid pain and discontent behind pizza and ice cream.  It cost me in energy, health, and social interaction.  My desire for food overrode my good judgment and obedience. 

Feeling desire is not wrong.  A well-made meal or rare delicacy is not wrong.   Once again the desire must be filtered through reason and self-control.  Everything we want is not bad.  Most things to excess are.  Living in a world that constantly wishes us to consume makes regulating desire a necessity.

Whether food, funds, or flesh we must not be driven by our desires.  Gluttony, greed, and lust are all desire gone wrong.  Food, money, and sex are not bad.  Pursuing them over Christ is.

We must have standards that set an example.  We must not consume more than we need while others go without.  We must not use each other to satisfy our wants.  If we are driven by our love for God and each other we must not let our desires come first.

I had a conversation with a friend just yesterday regarding this.   We need to allow our desires to come from our delight in God.  If we are driven by that then we will attune our desires to it.  We may fear that we will lack.  We  may think we will go without.

Christ made it clear that if we follow him we will lack nothing.  It comes down to faith again.  Do I really believe that I will have what I need?  Do I love God enough to find my sustenance in him?  If my standard for desire is God I will filter out the things that are not wholesome or healthy.  I will not use others.

I need to find all my hope in Christ.  In him I can live and move and have my being.  That is a desire worth having.

In Christ Alone – Performed by Stephen Nasby

In Christ alone my hope is found,

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my All in All,

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe.

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save:

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied -

For every sin on Him was laid;

Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain:

Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,

For I am His and He is mine –

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand:

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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