So what will make me happy? What is there to be excited about?
Work. Success. Beating other people. Winning. My family. Getting to retirement.
People's vision of me (as worker, as husband/wife, as father/mother, as social person, etc) Vacation. Relief...
Why do we want these things?
For peace, for security, for a sense of self-satisfaction.
Each of us, even those that profess no belief in anything are deeply motivated by a desire to have these things.
It may or may not have something to do with a hidden sense of guilt, shame or embarassment -- a need to prove our own worth.
Our desires are actually a reflection of our desire to be with God... To be in His kingdom.
Why do we these things NEVER fulfill us?
Because these things are too small and because we have no ability to be perfect.
The Bible tells us we leave in a broken world. Success, money, etc will only give us a taste of the heaven we desire. It is not that they can provide no joy, just no LASTING joy or peace.
But then why do we still FEEL like they will make us happy or make things better or provide that relief?
Because we are human and because we are made in his image, we are going to desire something. We, unlike every other creature, were given the ability to have thoughtful desires... BUT we naturally put ourselves at the center of everything. We can't help it. Recall what Satan said to Eve when trying to coax her into taking a bite from the tree of good and evil, essentially -- 'you too can be a god.' This is the great lie that we all DESPERATELY want to believe. But of course it isn't true. The belief that our wills have the power to do what we should -- "to love others as ourselves," that is simply impossible for us to do. If we are not busy trying to fulfill God's law, we are busy trying to fulfill a law of our own creation. "if i just do this, i'll feel better, if i just have this, then i won't be so unhappy" Sadly, we can't do fulfill either law. "The belief that our hearts can be changed by our wills alone is an arrogant, cruel and misplaced confidence." (f. allison) And YET, it is etched so firmly into who we all are... We simply don't want to believe it.
We should not be surprised by our own sinfulness -- our natural instincts or desires will never go away. This is what it means by saying the first step to approaching the cross is to give up. Acknowledge before yourself and before the Lord that you are permanently broken in your desires, that you will NEVER be a god and you will never be able to fulfill your own laws that your create for yourself, much less God's laws no matter how hard you try.
"with God's forgiveness and love, and our repentance, our wrongful desires are GRADUALLY replaced, our wills are changed as an expressino of a changed heart, and we begin to desire what God wants for us." -- fitzsimmons allison
To be clear, there is NOTHING wrong with wanting nice things. It is not wrong to want to live in a nice house or to have a nice family or a good job The sin is when we hold onto those ideas with a closed hand, when we are not open to receiving the Lord's plan for our lives even if it conflicts with our own ideas... When we believe that THOSE things (which we are going to be BETTER than the serving God's laws).
We obsess, replacing God's idea of what would make us happy (loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind and loving others as ourself) and replacing it with our own ideas. There is no way these things won't disappoint us ultimately.
Does that mean i should never have a nice thing?
No, but i certainly am not ready to have a nice thing if i am also simultaneously not prepared to give it up. if we are able to do that, and understand that our security, our peace, our joy comes from redemption through Christ, then we should feel no burden in having them. As Jesus warns us (as he warns the rich man), that is much easier to say than it is to do. Our hearts are so corrupt that we will fall into a sinful state when surrounded by these things... Why? Because we are human and will never stop being human and we are so easily seduced into forgetting our dependence on God. These THINGS (work, possessions, etc) make us forget. they can make us forget about our sinful state and our dependence on Christ and feed the horrible deception that satan first gave to us... That we too are gods. If we allow ourselves to be distracted enough, we end up enslaved to these THINGS which are doomed never to provide us the happiness, peace, joy and security that we truly desire. We enter an exhausting and endless loop of hope, work, failure, a new goal, hope, work, failure, a new goal... Each time thinking that "this will do it." The only way to break that cycle is by giving up.
"Understanding that sin is bondage and that when the Son makes us free we are free indeed, we can look at unacceptable behavior with sadness rather than having aggressive coutnerproductive anger and resentment... When we understand that all sin is an expressino of bondage, not freedom, wwe can begin to see that God has forgiven us for our acts and choices in our bondage so we are enabled to forggive others in their destrutive bondage. Neither we nor they deserve forgiveness" -f.a.
So let's say this is right? How do we move forward?
Step One.
Accept the two realities that will never change (our original sin)
1. Our hearts are evil (they want us to be at the center)
This means we may continue to feel the same way, for some amount of time anyway, about the things in our lives that have kept us in bondage.
2. No matter what we do it will never be good enough
Let's read matt 5-7
"the sermon on the mount is not some elevated idea that we are to stretch and strive for but a window through which to see God's kingdom. It is not a set of rules by which to live but a vision which enables us to DIE to self. The vision empties us of any confidence or trust in our own center. Humility is the only appropritate posture before the cost of God's love at the crucifixation. Only before the cross are we enabled to want and receive the true Center in place of our own."
Step Two
Confess our sins, including the state of our original sin before the Lord
Confess all the ways in which we place our dependance for our salvation upon things other than Christ. These are all the things that we are holding onto with CLOSED hands. Again, it isn't a sin to have something be holding it with an open hand. If we are truly prepared to have it taken away and submit our will to God then there is nothing for us to confess.
Step Three
Receive his forgiveness
Even though we don't deserve it we are forgiven for the sacrafice that Christ has made for us. Christ was the perfection that our hearts desire. He fulfilled the sermon on the mount.
Step Four
Ask for His will to be done in our lives.
Recall the two things he asks us to do -- LOVE him with all of ourselves and LOVE others. We ask for him to show us how we can Love him through our work, Love him through our families, Love him through our friends, SERVE him. As C.S. Lewis observed, it's not as though as soon as we become Christians everything in our life radically changes. It is our ATTITUDE and EXPECTATIONS about life that change dramatically... And slowly, over time, those desires that we used to hold onto with a closed hand, we're now prepared to hold onto with an open hand. If it is the Lord's will for them to be fulfilled, WONDERFUL, great, thank Him for blessing you, if it's the Lord's will for them to be taken away, so be it. He is at the center and his love is perfect. Because his love is perfect, we can trust him. Understanding that we live in a broken and fallen world and the place that we need to look to for happiness is Him, not Things.
Step Five
Repeat Step One.
CPP
Work. Success. Beating other people. Winning. My family. Getting to retirement.
People's vision of me (as worker, as husband/wife, as father/mother, as social person, etc) Vacation. Relief...
Why do we want these things?
For peace, for security, for a sense of self-satisfaction.
Each of us, even those that profess no belief in anything are deeply motivated by a desire to have these things.
It may or may not have something to do with a hidden sense of guilt, shame or embarassment -- a need to prove our own worth.
Our desires are actually a reflection of our desire to be with God... To be in His kingdom.
Why do we these things NEVER fulfill us?
Because these things are too small and because we have no ability to be perfect.
The Bible tells us we leave in a broken world. Success, money, etc will only give us a taste of the heaven we desire. It is not that they can provide no joy, just no LASTING joy or peace.
But then why do we still FEEL like they will make us happy or make things better or provide that relief?
Because we are human and because we are made in his image, we are going to desire something. We, unlike every other creature, were given the ability to have thoughtful desires... BUT we naturally put ourselves at the center of everything. We can't help it. Recall what Satan said to Eve when trying to coax her into taking a bite from the tree of good and evil, essentially -- 'you too can be a god.' This is the great lie that we all DESPERATELY want to believe. But of course it isn't true. The belief that our wills have the power to do what we should -- "to love others as ourselves," that is simply impossible for us to do. If we are not busy trying to fulfill God's law, we are busy trying to fulfill a law of our own creation. "if i just do this, i'll feel better, if i just have this, then i won't be so unhappy" Sadly, we can't do fulfill either law. "The belief that our hearts can be changed by our wills alone is an arrogant, cruel and misplaced confidence." (f. allison) And YET, it is etched so firmly into who we all are... We simply don't want to believe it.
We should not be surprised by our own sinfulness -- our natural instincts or desires will never go away. This is what it means by saying the first step to approaching the cross is to give up. Acknowledge before yourself and before the Lord that you are permanently broken in your desires, that you will NEVER be a god and you will never be able to fulfill your own laws that your create for yourself, much less God's laws no matter how hard you try.
"with God's forgiveness and love, and our repentance, our wrongful desires are GRADUALLY replaced, our wills are changed as an expressino of a changed heart, and we begin to desire what God wants for us." -- fitzsimmons allison
To be clear, there is NOTHING wrong with wanting nice things. It is not wrong to want to live in a nice house or to have a nice family or a good job The sin is when we hold onto those ideas with a closed hand, when we are not open to receiving the Lord's plan for our lives even if it conflicts with our own ideas... When we believe that THOSE things (which we are going to be BETTER than the serving God's laws).
We obsess, replacing God's idea of what would make us happy (loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind and loving others as ourself) and replacing it with our own ideas. There is no way these things won't disappoint us ultimately.
Does that mean i should never have a nice thing?
No, but i certainly am not ready to have a nice thing if i am also simultaneously not prepared to give it up. if we are able to do that, and understand that our security, our peace, our joy comes from redemption through Christ, then we should feel no burden in having them. As Jesus warns us (as he warns the rich man), that is much easier to say than it is to do. Our hearts are so corrupt that we will fall into a sinful state when surrounded by these things... Why? Because we are human and will never stop being human and we are so easily seduced into forgetting our dependence on God. These THINGS (work, possessions, etc) make us forget. they can make us forget about our sinful state and our dependence on Christ and feed the horrible deception that satan first gave to us... That we too are gods. If we allow ourselves to be distracted enough, we end up enslaved to these THINGS which are doomed never to provide us the happiness, peace, joy and security that we truly desire. We enter an exhausting and endless loop of hope, work, failure, a new goal, hope, work, failure, a new goal... Each time thinking that "this will do it." The only way to break that cycle is by giving up.
"Understanding that sin is bondage and that when the Son makes us free we are free indeed, we can look at unacceptable behavior with sadness rather than having aggressive coutnerproductive anger and resentment... When we understand that all sin is an expressino of bondage, not freedom, wwe can begin to see that God has forgiven us for our acts and choices in our bondage so we are enabled to forggive others in their destrutive bondage. Neither we nor they deserve forgiveness" -f.a.
So let's say this is right? How do we move forward?
Step One.
Accept the two realities that will never change (our original sin)
1. Our hearts are evil (they want us to be at the center)
This means we may continue to feel the same way, for some amount of time anyway, about the things in our lives that have kept us in bondage.
2. No matter what we do it will never be good enough
Let's read matt 5-7
"the sermon on the mount is not some elevated idea that we are to stretch and strive for but a window through which to see God's kingdom. It is not a set of rules by which to live but a vision which enables us to DIE to self. The vision empties us of any confidence or trust in our own center. Humility is the only appropritate posture before the cost of God's love at the crucifixation. Only before the cross are we enabled to want and receive the true Center in place of our own."
Step Two
Confess our sins, including the state of our original sin before the Lord
Confess all the ways in which we place our dependance for our salvation upon things other than Christ. These are all the things that we are holding onto with CLOSED hands. Again, it isn't a sin to have something be holding it with an open hand. If we are truly prepared to have it taken away and submit our will to God then there is nothing for us to confess.
Step Three
Receive his forgiveness
Even though we don't deserve it we are forgiven for the sacrafice that Christ has made for us. Christ was the perfection that our hearts desire. He fulfilled the sermon on the mount.
Step Four
Ask for His will to be done in our lives.
Recall the two things he asks us to do -- LOVE him with all of ourselves and LOVE others. We ask for him to show us how we can Love him through our work, Love him through our families, Love him through our friends, SERVE him. As C.S. Lewis observed, it's not as though as soon as we become Christians everything in our life radically changes. It is our ATTITUDE and EXPECTATIONS about life that change dramatically... And slowly, over time, those desires that we used to hold onto with a closed hand, we're now prepared to hold onto with an open hand. If it is the Lord's will for them to be fulfilled, WONDERFUL, great, thank Him for blessing you, if it's the Lord's will for them to be taken away, so be it. He is at the center and his love is perfect. Because his love is perfect, we can trust him. Understanding that we live in a broken and fallen world and the place that we need to look to for happiness is Him, not Things.
Step Five
Repeat Step One.
CPP
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