Louder doesn't mean truer: Why your false desires shout false things.

"But it feels like I really want that.  How can I enjoy my good and noble heart when I still want the things that trip me up?"

What happens when you hear the message that your heart has been made good and true in Christ, yet your desires pull you in the opposite direction?

• That desire that seduces you?


• That pseudo-addiction you "can't help"?


• The anger at your kids that seems so...automatic?

Here's the problem: 
We've been taught that powerful feelings and attachments must be true of us.  The louder those feelings shout, the more true we think they are.  We've allowed feelings to be the cornerstone of our identity, rather than God's redemptive assessment of us. 

We mistakenly think that:

If I feel I want that other woman, it must be true that I want her.

If I can't let go of anger, it means my anger must be stronger than my patience.

If I can't let go of control, it means I must be a controlling person who can't let go.

It's destructive circular thinking:  "Because I experience a powerful pull, I must want that.  Worse, I must be the kind of person that wants that."

Here's the lie:  "Yeah, the 'good and noble heart' is a nice ideal; but you're not there yet.  There's no real power in it."

We've forgotten what God knows about us:  That those dishonorable desires are no longer us.  We have a new set of desires waiting to be released within our new hearts.  More accurately, the Holy Spirit is right now in the process of releasing those new and noble desires within us.

Here's how God might answer your doubts:

"You are my son [daughter] in whom I am SO-pleased!  Yes, you may have those wayward desires, but they are no longer you.  You have them, but they no longer have you.  Celebrate the new power, new resources, and new desires I'm now releasing in your good heart."

Trusting your heart is the biblical thing to do.

It's o.k. to trust your heart now.  In fact, Jesus wants you to.

Your heart can be trusted now because it is no longer 'deceitfully wicked.'  If you follow Christ, it would be wrong to mistrust your heart:  It would be at cross-purposes with what God is doing in your life to constantly hold your desires under suspicion.

I recently asked a group of men to raise their hands if they thought that trusting their hearts was the right thing to do.  About a third of the hands went up.  The majority thought that holding their heart under suspicion was the biblical thing to do.  As we unpacked the truth of their new hearts, given to them when they said 'yes' to Jesus, we exposed the debilitating assumptions they were taught about their hearts.

I explained that within the new heart Jesus gave them came new and noble desires -- and that dismissing those desires as selfish or inherently wicked would prevent them from doing certain things like:

• discovering their unique calling
• loving God and loving each other

But not all desires are created equal
There are, of course, competing desires that can be whispered to us, but those desires are not ours.  They are either whispered by the Enemy, or our culture, or our 'flesh' (which is no longer us, not our real self);  but those desires are not our desires.  False desires are like thorns lodged in the skin -- they are embedded in our bodies, but not of our bodies.  The thorns cry out for our attention, but our health lies in the vitality already present in our bodies.  Our concern must focus on what's most alive and already present within us.  That's where God focuses his energy.

Ask God to reveal the desires of your heart. 
Stay with the process.  It's what he's up to in your life.  Trusting your heart is biblical.

Don't let pragmatism kill your dream.

Pragmatism can kill your desires.  Statements like the following will sabotage budding dreams:

• "How will we pull this off?"  (vs Why should we do this?)
• "I'd love to pursue this, but I don't have the time, money, resources." 

• "I've always dreamed of becoming a [________], but how will I provide for my family?"
• "I really want to move forward in my calling, but I guess I'll wait until the economy rebounds a bit."

Let me also be clear that there must be discernment involved.  Launching into your dream or calling without having heard some directive from God can be foolish and bring about unnecessary pain.  Listening for his counsel and wisdom is critical. That having been said, don't allow pragmatism to prevent you from taking the necessary, God-inspired risks that will bring you further into your place in the Story.

Pragmatism's favorite word is "how?"  Someone has to answer that question, but we can leave that to our Supply Captain who has any and every resource at his disposal. 

God recently asked me and my wife to move our family 1,000 miles with no job.  I knew that's how he wanted us to proceed because it's what I had been hearing for two years.  Believe me, it was tempting to hedge our bets and say, "Sure we'll move, God;  if you give us a job first."  Or, "Let's wait until we've got some good job leads." 

In fact, our trust did waver during the journey.  Other's we hoped would support us thought we were nuts.  But in the end, we moved without a job.  And God showed up.  Brilliantly.  He provided a job for my wife that couldn't have come any other way than by his intervention.  That's just one of the ways in which he took care of things.

Pragmatism could have killed our dream, for we did not have a clue as to "how" God was going to provide.  But our Supply Captain always has something up his sleave...

Podcast - RECOVERING OUR DESIRE

Recovering our desire -- Jim is a guest again on Joel Brueseke's Growing in Grace Together  podcast.  They talk about our fears to trust our desires, because we've mistrusted our hearts.  They also talked about the various sources of desires and the consequences of not trusting the desires that are in our new and good hearts.

Here's Joel's podcast site

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Get the podcasts on iTunes here.

New podcast -- "Let us take the adventure"

Let us take the adventure - Join Jim as he talks about the adventure he and his family have been on for the last five years; the pain of unfulfilled longing, and the journey it has taken them on as they arrive at the place of their dreams (with no job, no friends, and the great unknown).  (9/10/09)