The Distortion of Desire.

If you’ll allow me a moment of your time and some space within your mind, I want to show you four crucial things in the Journey through the battlefield of the human heart.  Which is precisely what Life is: Dostoyevsky said, “Beauty is a dangerous and terrible thing....  It is there that God and Satan strive for mastery in the hearts of men.”  Notice how he recognized, brilliantly, that mastery of the heart is what the Battle is all about, and beauty is at the centre of it.

The first is in every relational exchange you either give Life or take it.  You can offer affirmation or denigration, but it’s your choice.  Proverbs 12:18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the Wise brings healing.”  The Hebrew chakam speaks of the ‘spiritually skilled,’ those trained in Truth who live in love.  When you stay in close daily contact with the Author of Life, then you learn how to give Life— just as He gives it to you.

Secondly, you can live with a passionate heart alive to desire, or follow Satan’s path and try to shut it down til it’s dead.  At least for all practical purposes and appearances.  But in the end you cannot kill what Christ has created.  Desire will surface.  And it will drive us in one of two directions: deliverance in the arms of our Savior or destruction at the hands of our enemy.

Author and Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias writes, “Sexuality, greed, fame, and momentary thrills are actually the most precarious attractions in the world.  Pain forces us to accept our finitude.  It can breed cynicism, weariness, and fatigue in just living.  Pain sends us in search of a greater power.  Introspection, superstition, ceremony, and vows can all come as a result of pain.  But disappointment in pleasure is a completely different thing.  While pain can often be seen as a means to a greater end, pleasure is seen as an end in itself.  And when pleasure has run its course, a sense of despondency can creep into one’s soul that may often lead to self-destruction.  Pain can often be temporary; but disappointment in pleasure gives rise to emptiness... not just for a moment, but for life.”

The enemy wants you and he wants you badly.  Because you’re the only way he has to lash out at God— to mar and manipulate, conceal and corrupt, the imago dei, the image of God in Man.  He wages an unceasing warfare for nothing less than your soul.  And if not your soul, then the glory of your life: to rob you of the purpose Abba has for you inside His plan.

Third, the glory of an individual can be soulish and spiritual {i.e., given by His grace} or bodily and temporal.  The world has, as it always has, an abundance of beautiful people without whose souls are diseased within.

Fourth, there is an alluring appeal to a person of glory and grace.  Their openness, their freedom, their honesty are, in a single word, captivating.  The mystery of the uniquely created is still there but the game-playing is gone.

Ladies, a word of wisdom here.  The only men I’ve ever known who enjoy, or at least pretend to, women who play games— mentally, emotionally, spiritually— are those who are busy playing games themselves.  You cannot trust a person who never reveals the self behind the facade.  And whether we admit it or not, in our heart of hearts we all want the same thing: to know and be deeply known, to see and be truly seen, to love and be loved for who we really are ...not the persona we’ve learned to project.  Thankfully, gratefully, incredibly, we have a Friend, a Lover, a King like this.  His name is Jesus of Nazareth.  The author of Hebrews has said, “Be content with what you have...;” arkeo can also mean- ‘be strong, be possessed of unfailing strength’ {as in 2 Cor. 12:9}.  And how?  How can we possibly stand against the hammer-blows of a fallen world with unfailing strength?  Because Jesus has said, “‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence [‘with courage, with boldness’], ‘The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?’” {13:5b-6}.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously