Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Discerning Desires

UV 2104/10000 Discerning Desires

The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
Proverbs 30 v 15
The worldly lust is like a leech that latches itself to our skin. It keeps sucking our lifeblood and is never satisfied. It attaches its suction pads to our lives and sucks out our peace and joy. It contaminates our blood as it injects a kind of anaesthetic so that we are not even aware that our lifeblood is being sucked out. Only one thing can make a leech loosen its tentacles on us- it is salt. The Word is the salt that can release the clutches of the world and its temptations in our lives. The Word teaches us contentment. It teaches us to say , “enough” when our needs are satisfied. It keeps us from moving into levels of greed. St James clearly understood the “sin cycle”: desire conceives sin, the sin seed matures and is given birth to. The sin feeds on us and becomes full blown or full grown and leads to death. Sin produces many byproducts or offspring in our lives like pride, selfishness, arrogance, deceit, strife, envy, conceit, self righteousness and so on.

In every area of our life, the Word teaches us to trust the Lord and not rely on our own understanding of what our needs are. We trust the Lord for the means to satisfy the needs as He is the creator, the sustainer and the provider. This is the reason Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “ I will give you water that will never make you thirst again.” Once we receive the promise and hope of eternal life, we stop hankering after the things of this world- pleasure, fame, ambition, power, wealth, position. The Lord knows what we need and how much of it we need. It is written that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” We are not in quest unlike the rest of the world of more and more gain and ungodly gain. Our blessings come from the Lord and it is not the blessings we seek but His presence is all sufficient for us. His grace is enough for us.

In everything we say and do, we do not look for our personal gain or benefit or ask, “What is in it for me?” Instead, we look for the will and glory of the Lord. We no longer are in pursuit of illusions and delusions but are contented to do what the Lord leads and asks us to do. We should apply the word as salt in advance to prevent any leech sticking onto our skin and not wait till we see a leech doing so for the assaults of the world are so silent and secret that we might not even know. Not all desire is sinful or ungodly or worldly. If it is a godly desire or a God-inspired desire or a desire that is pleasing to the Lord, when the Lord satisfies that desire, we are grateful lifelong. Such a desire will not creep on us subtly and latch onto us. It will grow patiently like good seed over a long period in our hearts.

Prateep V Philip

No comments:

Post a Comment