“You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as you dominant aspiration.” ~ James Allen
Desire and hope. They are often two quite different things. As Christians, I would pray that all of our hope or aspiration is for God. We should want nothing more than to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live with God for all eternity. That should be the aspiration that drives each and every one of our decisions and actions. That is a wonderful idea; however, something often gets in the way: desire.
Yes. Desire is good and bad. If we are centered fully in the Lord, our desire and our aspiration should be one and the same. We aspire to go to heaven and our desires should steer us to that ultimate goal. However, as said so often, our desires are tinged and tainted by the world in which we live.
The things for which we desire are not always good and wholesome. Some of our desires might even be far from good. Yet, the world throws temptation after temptation toward us, trying to get us to accept the desires of the world: fame, fortune, sensuality, avarice, and the like. The world would say that it is just fine to desire all of those. The world would say that we “deserve” to go after those since we are the only ones that are important.
The world wants to keep us as selfish as possible. If it can do that, it can keep our eyes off of what our souls aspire to gain: eternity with God. If the world would have its way, desire would control us and cancel out our aspiration.
Are you going to let the world get away with that?
FAITH ACTION: Let God be at the center of your life today so that all decisions you make will be viewed through the eyes of God rather than the whims of the world.