“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?” –James 4:1The sun was shining, the day was as beautiful as ever had been seen. There were children laughing while they played on the swings, slides and jungle gyms. For all intensive purposes, everything was just perfect. As I was walking to the car to get the kites for our kids, I observed the contentment in this small family sitting on a blanket, laughing and having fun. As I returned from the car, I walked by this same family not more than 10 minutes later and the Dad was yelling at one of the children who had spilled a glass of juice all over the blanket they were laying on. He was extremely angry and the child was near tears trying to explain that his sister had bumped him and it was really her fault.
What a change in attitude caused by nothing more than a cup of spilled juice. It could be anything that causes an outburst like that, on this particular day it was a small glass of grape juice Obviously, there is something much deeper than the spilled juice that was causing the eruption of emotion in this little family. Each of us are the same though. We all have pent up emotions just waiting for the trigger to cause an explosion. Hidden deep beneath the surface we all carry around baggage that hasn’t been dealt with, and anger that has been suppressed for one reason or another. It often times is something completely unrelated that just bubbles to the surface for one reason or another.
Within each of us is the inherent desire for joy and happiness. It’s from our creator, it’s a part of who we are, yet the farther we are from Him, the harder it is to experience it. From the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, there has been a gap in our own ability to achieve pure joy. God had provided for every desire, want and need prior to their fall. By choosing to pursue their own will, they abandoned the provisions of God’s will in their life. Since that moment we continue to pursue our own desires and try to fulfill them on our own. In doing so, we are focused on ourselves and selfishly will be driven by our own satisfaction rather than serving others, or serving God.
This is the root of most arguments and disagreements in your life, if you take a step back and honestly take a look at it. Pride, selfishness and arrogance get in the way of finding true joy in life; which can only be found when we are pursuing the joy that comes from above. When we take our eyes off of our own desires and place them on serving the needs of others it’s amazing how uplifted our spirits become.
Here’s a simple exercise to help you take the focus off of yourself and place it on others. Take a blank piece of paper and capture your list of desires within, the things you wish for. Now, flip the paper over and capture a list of the things you want to do for other people. On this list, put a checkmark next to those that have zero benefit to you – that are 100% charitable in nature. How many are there? If you counted all of the items on both lists and then divided this number by the number with check marks; is it greater than 50%, how about 25%, maybe 10% or 5%. By nature, we are all driven by trying to fulfill our own desires in life first and then to consider others.
How about this, each day when you pray, take your list of desires and include a few in your daily prayers. God wants to fulfill your every righteous desires in life rather than you struggling to fulfill them without Him. Also, include an item or two from your list of things your desire for others; and ask God to help you achieve this action in your life. This little exercise will help you focus on serving others and God first, and yourself second in life. Very contradicting to what the world teaches, isn’t it?
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for giving me the ability to help others. Thank You for Your mercy and grace and for providing for my needs in life. Help me to realize that all that I have comes from You, and it is through You that I am able to find joy, peace and contentment in life. I long to be within Your will and live for You, help me to put aside my pride and selfishness. In Jesus name we pray – Amen.
© Sondove Enterprises, 2011
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