Tag Archives: desire

FOUNDATION STONES – 19

Christian Life,

Romans 7:18 NIV
[18] “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Now this is an unusual stone to build into our foundation! Unusual, but very necessary. Without this stone firmly in place, we are all in grave danger of floating above reality in the mistaken notion that we are both essentially good and self-sufficient, at least in some parts of life.

People in the world, and even some of God’s own children, think that they are good. Yes, we sometimes go astray but that isn’t the norm. Wrong! With that perspective, we deny the nature of our union with Jesus and our need of Him. He said that we can do NOTHING without Him…and that includes the change in our nature from corrupted to godly, by His blood.

Paul, the Pharisee, had to learn the hard way that his inner being was rotten with sin, every thought and deed that came from his inborn independence from God. Try as he did, he had no power to be “good”. The struggle was beyond even his strongest will power and best intentions. He had to conclude that he was sinful to the core.

Both Isaiah and Jeremiah, reflecting on their nation’s failure to live within the boundaries of God’s covenant, came to the same conclusion.

Isaiah 64:6 NIV
[6] “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
[9] “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Paul, too, came to the same conclusion about the human race. Quoting Scripture after Scripture, he diagnosed the disease that infects all people, both Jews and Gentiles…

Romans 3:9-18 NIV
[9] What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. [10] As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; [11] there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. [12] All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” [13] “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” [14] “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” [15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
[16] ruin and misery mark their ways,
[17] and the way of peace they do not know.” [18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

With no fear of God to set boundaries around their lives, people without Jesus live in a hell of their own making, “a boundary-less place”, according to ancient Hebrew thought.

Not even the Jews’ association with God through His covenant could make them any different from the rest of the world.

Romans 3:22-23 NIV
[22] “… There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Apart from the mercy and grace of God, no one will every escape His wrath and judgment.

With this stone under our feet, the constant reminder that we are helpless and nothing without Jesus, but are only complete in Him, we can face life with confidence. We have the assurance that it is Christ in us who guarantees not only our perseverance to the end, but also our victory over the old nature that constantly threatens to drag us into destruction.

Dear friends, let’s stand on this truth. It will surely help us to keep our feet on the ground and our faith in our Source. Without Him, we are nothing, we have nothing, and are in need of everything.

The constant awareness of our old, corrupted nature should drive us to the Lord for His grace to overcome. Like Paul, we rejoice in the reminder that it is our weakness that qualifies us for His abundant grace.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV
[9] “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. [10] That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

ONE THING!

Christian life, ,

We all have wishes and desires and wants and dreams, don’t we …and they cover a variety of aspirations, from money and wealth to health and happiness and everything in between? What would you ask for if God promised to give you anything you want? Would He give you what you desire or would He say, “No!” because it would not be good for you?

David also had a desire, so strong that he called it ONE THING. He didn’t only ask for it; he sought it with all his heart.

ONE THING I ask of the Lord., this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple (Psa. 27: 4).

What! Spend your whole life just thinking about God! What benefit is there in that when there’s so much going on around you?

David was the king of Israel but he was also a man after God’s own heart. God loved him dearly – in fact, his name means “beloved.” He had everything his heart could desire. He had wives and children, fame, success, wealth and power. Yet, of all the things he could have desired, he most wanted to be in God’s presence to gaze at Him!

“Well,” you might say, “if I had been David, I would have asked for…”, something tangible to make my life a little easier or more comfortable.

For David, one thing was more important to him than anything else – to be in the presence of the Lord.

Two other Bible characters had one thing on their minds. Mary, Martha’s sister, sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him. When Martha complained that Mary wasn’t pulling her weight in the kitchen, Jesus gently reminded her that it was Mary’s choice to be with Him and no one could take that ONE THING from her (Luke 10:42).

The apostle Paul also had ONE THING on his mind.

But ONE THING I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13b-14).

The difference between these desires and ours is often the difference between what is eternal and what is transient. These three people set their hearts on the eternal. Another guy in Scripture chose his money over Jesus. He has kept all the commandments, yet he lacked ONE THING – fellowship with Jesus. That makes up for everything else. When you have Jesus, you have everything.