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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Courage to Change :Desires and Your Future

Lately I've been thinking a good bit about the future of the lives of those around me. Most of them have eyes toward marriage and a future relationship. I look at their lives and I try to share with them my point of view...but over all I just want the best for them.

I think one the biggest topics to blog about right now would be Relationships and Desires and how we tie our Futures to them. I was in the mall the other day and the song I hear playing sang out "Everybody wants to be loved". And it's true. Even the sinful people, even those who are rejecting who God made them to be, really...most everyone wants to be loved.
A lot of us look out over the far field of our distant future, and either tie it's success with one of two things. 1. A Relationship 2.  A Status.

Usually, a person either thinks their future will be worth the living, if it holds a satisfying relationship, or a successful career. What is it that you tie your future's happiness with? Is it a lover? Is it a Musical Career? We all want to 'feel' good. And we have all heard that "God has plans for our lives, plans for good, and not for evil"...and we all expect this easy hay ride down the road to the magical future prepared for us.
The grass is always greener on the other side, am I not right? But what about "today"?
Is today any less of a miracle, or of any less merit than the future that you are always looking towards? What makes today any different from that day a few years from now? Is it because you still don't have what you want? Is it because you still haven't the title or status that you desire? Whether that be "married", or "famous", or "business man", or "artist".....

What if I said, that you are living 'the future' right now? Once upon a time you were younger. Once upon a time you looked out the window and gazed at that speck up the road that you imagined as yourself, some place in the future. "Right now" you are living in that 'future'. You are living in a moment you have never lived before. This Present, was once, 'the future', and it will one day be 'the past'.

Are you happy with where you are at right now? Perhaps you don't feel like you've actually 'arrived' at that place, or status of your dreams 'yet'. And that is o.k, there is still 'more future' to come. But what about the 'present'? What will you do with it? Some people get so consumed in 'the waiting' or 'the working' for the future, or for the finsihed project, or 'focusing on the completion' that they do not 'open the gift of today', like the "present" that it is!

I think most of us, have a common case of "completion anxiety". We want what we desire, and nothing else matters in life, if we do not have it. We strive and think about what it is we do not have, or haven't achieved, and we let the desire consume us. I feel a lot of single folk do this. This get so consumed in the idea of getting married, or falling in love with Mr. or Ms. Fireworks that they let it lead their lives. All that begins to really matter, is finding or uniting with that other person. Life is miserable without them, and less worth the living. This is a lie. Desire can actually blind us from the beauty of today. We want something, so much that we let the thought of it rule our lives, determine our happiness, and we begin to believe that we shall 'never be happy' if we do not have what it is we desire most of all other things.

I am learning the fact that life is not all about what we want. It is not all about what we think we should have, or should be doing. Life is a matter of the more overlooked things. Each day is what makes up life, not just every want that fulfilled, every desire that is satisfied. One day we will live in paradise and we shall not longer long and doubt like we do here.

What does your life revolve around? Does it revolve around 'attaining the future'? "getting there"? "becoming better?" "being in that relationship"? Don't let your life become consumed by anything, so that you believe that life is not worth the momentary living. Focus on what has 'already been accomplished' for you ;) and live life in that light. You can strive, and strive for a closer relationship with Christ, but unless you live believing that he is with you every moment, unless you stop focusing so much on 'what you should do', and realize that what really matters is what 'He has done for you' then you shall not grow like you desire.

 There is nothing 'you' can do to become closer. It is the reality of what "he" Christ has already done that changes a person, and brings a hope and a joy to every moment, and to the future. People have told me "draw closer to God" "do this, do that, come into his presence", but it just all sounded to 'self centered to me'. I don't believe any more so much, that really it was "I" who needed to grow more, but rather "Christ" who needed to grow more in me, until He took me over. And the only effort I needed to take was to let Him. To focus on Him, and what he's already done, rather than what "I" need to do, or the relationship I "should" have had with Him.
Because, that relationship could only come into being, if I lived like I was always in His presence, if I feel in love with "Him", by focusing on what He had done for 'me', and not what 'I' should do to make Him bigger somehow in my life. That isn't reality...to think that we can 'make God bigger in our lives by going through the motions more'. It's ridiculous.

The way God becomes bigger in our lives, is by focusing on what "He's" done, and the awesomeness of "Him". That's how we fall in love with Him; not by praying more, not by merely by reading the words of the bible more, not merely by singing more, or fellowship with other Christians on Sundays or week day nights. But, by discovering what He has done for us, focusing on who He is, by reading how he reacted, served, loved, in scripture. By Believing He is who He says He is, and believing in what he has done. If you do not believe, truly believe, what he has done for you, than the rest doesn't really matter. You can go through all the reading, singing, studying, fellowshiping, but if Christ doesn't move you with who He is, none of that will draw you closer. But once you realize the reality of God, the God who Was, and Is, and Is to come...in Your life and in others. Then every day has meaning. What He's done gives purpose for today, for tomorrow, and for eternity.

It's time to ask yourself...Instead of what you want from your future...What does God want?
What would God live right here, and right now? If it's a closer relationship with Him than I recommend you open up your heart, receive again the truth of what He has done for You, and let it motivate you to worship Him in return. "God" has a purpose for You, your life, and your future. And that is for it to fist Glorify Him and for You to be blessed by Him. And even if your desires are good desires, and even if they could easily be fulfilled by God.
 I recommend you to lay them down before the throne of God, and tell Him to align your priorities and your desires. Live in the moment. Live in today. The person who lives in the moment and lives in the present, are those who 'believe'.

If you do not believe that anything else is worth while in life, but the one thing you desire most, than you will not enjoy the other gifts surrounding you. God Has given you "Life". He has given you emotions, He has given you senses, He has given you a mind, He has given you a body, He has given you a Soul. He has formed you in your Mother's whom. God has made made the flowers, stirred the wind, formed the sun to shine, and the moon to glow. God has put in you the breath that you are breathing right now. God has died for your own sin by the sacrifice of His Son, and taken your penalty.
 God has said that He has gone to prepare a place for You, and that Heaven will come down to earth. This is Hope. This is Future. God said He has plans for us, a "future" and a "hope", and He has. It's o.k to have desires. God has placed some of them inside you. But, don't let them get out of hand. Don't let them rule your living, so that you cannot enjoy all else that you were intended to enjoy. "Live", not some day in the future, but "right now"! Breathe! most importantly...Believe.

http://youtu.be/5MI76zIAe1g - All Along
http://youtu.be/8A-2jhdN0Vc - I'm Letting Go

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