A Cruel Joke

At times that can be what this life feels like. Why hope for what never seems to come? Why want and have any desire to only have them thwarted or ripped from under you at the first hint of being fulfilled ... Pain and tears. Most don't want that. How could a loving God allow that?

So people look for the quick fix. How do i get what i want? "God didn't come through, and doesn't it say that He helps those who help themselves?" (please catch the necessary sarcasm).

Desires, hopes, emotions, dreams. To have them is pain and sorrow. The Buddhist suggestion is to empty yourself of all desire, and in doing so you will be free. The logic being that if you want nothing and desire nothing then there is nothing holding you back, nothing that can make you sad or rampage your emotional state as you twist and turn in a churning sea of unfulfilled hopes and expectations. O.K. So empty yourself. Go ahead ... Not so easy is it.

You don't live in a vacuum and also the human being is a vessel. If one thing goes out something else comes in. It is the nature of the human being to be filled with something. That is why the followers of Christ are instructed to be "filled with the Holy Spirit."

Note: To let go is important. You will serve nothing else besides Christ. All other hopes, desires and dreams fall at the foot of that Cross. It is a death, and a painful one at that. Pain because you thought you had a right to that hope or desire. We have no rights as slaves of Christ. We are soldiers for Him to do with as He wishes. That said, know that He is kind, He is just. He is trying to give us His best (the abundant life) if only we'd trust Him enough to recieve it.

It is painful, but He is cutting the cancer of self out of you. It is the will of God that your desires, hopes and dreams be manifest in their fullness, only to be crushed completely until there is nothing left but Him in you. No hope but Him. No desire, no dream but Him. Nothing left but Jesus. And from that place He can make out of you what He wills unto His glory, with your full compliance and willful participation in the process. You are nothing but a dejected mess on the floor in tears before the Father. He likes that, He can do something with that. Let a man think he has something he can offer to God that is of value and you meet a man that is yet to be broken in that area and all others underlying it. Completely shattered lives turned over to Him.

Does it scare you to be so utterly broken? Does it scare you to allow the hand of God to shape and fire you? To burn every hope and desire out of you till there is nothing left but Him. Why does is scare you? It is the path of freedom. He allows for your weeping with promise. That though your weeping may last for the night, His joy comes in the morning.

In Christ,

The faithmix Team