Addition
The kingdom of God is one of addition, not subtraction.
If I try to deny what I want in my inner most being, I will lose every time. It's the source of satisfaction that is the problem, not the desires that are found underneath my actions.
Satan appealed to the perfect desire in Eve's heart by offering her an alternative source to godliness. God made man to want to be like God! Satan twisted that desire to connect it to a dead end...Eve without God.
Genesis 3:4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
God had already made Adam and Eve in His own likeness to raise them into godliness. All the other beings of creation were after their own kind, but man is "God-kind."
Genesis 1:24Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.
25And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God's destiny for each man or woman is to satisfy the longing in our hearts for greatness, impact, fascination, beauty, goodness, and love.
There is no other source that will truly take me to satisfaction but the One who put the desire there in the first place.
To deny myself is different than to deny what God made me to be. To deny myself is to deny myself the right to try to satisfy myself...not to deny the longing God put in me.
Self-denial should apply to attaining. Not to wanting. It's good to want if that want drives me to God's leadership, trusting His unique ways will eventually fully satisfy my heart. Embracing the idea that I need him to do the things I want is embracing my need....my poverty. Blessed are the poor in Spirit.
God created me to need Him.
James 4:1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
If I try to deny what I want in my inner most being, I will lose every time. It's the source of satisfaction that is the problem, not the desires that are found underneath my actions.
Satan appealed to the perfect desire in Eve's heart by offering her an alternative source to godliness. God made man to want to be like God! Satan twisted that desire to connect it to a dead end...Eve without God.
Genesis 3:4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
God had already made Adam and Eve in His own likeness to raise them into godliness. All the other beings of creation were after their own kind, but man is "God-kind."
Genesis 1:24Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.
25And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God's destiny for each man or woman is to satisfy the longing in our hearts for greatness, impact, fascination, beauty, goodness, and love.
There is no other source that will truly take me to satisfaction but the One who put the desire there in the first place.
To deny myself is different than to deny what God made me to be. To deny myself is to deny myself the right to try to satisfy myself...not to deny the longing God put in me.
Self-denial should apply to attaining. Not to wanting. It's good to want if that want drives me to God's leadership, trusting His unique ways will eventually fully satisfy my heart. Embracing the idea that I need him to do the things I want is embracing my need....my poverty. Blessed are the poor in Spirit.
God created me to need Him.
James 4:1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
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