When He allows something we really love to leave, we are crushed. We have allowed sin to make sin to make us into needy, complaining people that don’t tolerate anything but perfect comfort. Sadly, that display of need for many affections is from our lack of affection from God through accepting the cross. They are like a cute dogie: always there smiling wagging its tail filling us with the love we crave. But on this side of heaven, joy must be fought for every day. Jesus helped those in need. We will know we are on the right path when our hearts can’t wait to die–to be with God. What a cross it is to live for so long away from Who our hearts yearn so greatly to be with. I heard the sweet whisper of his Spirit as he told me that it was all right, that he understood. But Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:29-30). We tragically have made them our gods. God and His will should be all we want, but from the devil’s lure, we want the world and its pleasures instead. “The souls in hell having been found at the moment of death with a will to sin, have with them an infinite degree of guilt; and the punishment they suffer, though less than they deserve [because of the infinite degree of guilt from one act of self-love], is yet, so far as it exists, endless.”Â. How can we obtain a true love for God if our eyes are on another? Therefore, to learn how to let go of such a great desire innately within us, so we can sincerely desire to love God alone takes much grace as our sinful will is very strong, as I explain. And you will find a place of incomparable beauty and peace. What we spend our time doing instead of truly seeking God and His perfect will for us. Sadly, most don’t have what it takes to even begin on the path towards Life since we love so many of our sins so much. If suffering is all that is required to effect this change, I offer myself with my whole heart to You that I may suffer all the martyrdom and torments that ever have been and ever shall be suffered in the world. Not from depression and hopelessness…but from LOVE. The more worldly things, power, attention, etc. Why Does God Allow Suffering and Punishment? How do I distinguish between my desires and God’s? The evil one has been busy confusing us to the true Catechism (teaching) of the faith. We want nothing and simply try to love Him in return for such undeserved gifts. We need to try to come to understand the needs of others where they are in their spiritual journey. These poor people simply didn’t believe me and felt they deserved the world as their entertainment…but God wants us to love Him, not the world, not some of the time, but all of the time. Yes, we would die of loneliness and utter boredom to say the least. Truly we would struggle greatly. We can’t. Even what seem like acts of charity towards another (as I explain)…are not to love God, but to really to love ourselves. Take my yoke [commands] upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. is bad; it can be very good. The words were truly from my heart, as sincere as I could possibly be. The journey has been long and difficult. It is hard to love and truly desire nothing in return and as our responses to life’s unloving treatment of us teaches us. There are three ways a person expresses the desire for God’s name: 1) imitate the character of God, 2) live in submission to God’s judgments, and 3) seek to teach others about God’s righteousness. Never, seeking to go out with friends, or wanting to eat a great meal or longing to watch a great show…or desiring anything that we used to think make life so great…anything at all we sought to gratify our will for pleasure, but only seeking to love God and live for His will alone….Yes, when we desire God alone, we thirst for nothing but be perfectly satisfied with God….not to get love from God, but to GIVE love to God by way of the cross. If we are setting our affections on an object or a person clearly outside of God’s will as revealed in the Bible, then we need to repent of the desire itself, even if we have not acted to obtain the object of our desire. The last thing was God’s responsibility. Want to desire God? We need to use it, if it is truly God’s will, to help us grow strong so we can more perfectly know, serve and love God. I began to see the purpose in the pain I had suffered. What a cross! We won’t even want to mention the things we seek out for happiness/consolation which aren’t God, and will try to justify their need and how they aren’t really sinful because they satisfy our need for love and happiness so perfectly. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires… Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act (Psalm 37:4, 7 NLT). How do we respond when our kids grow up and leave their father and mother and become one in marriage (religious life or matrimony)? When we finally grow in God’s grace, God’s power will eventually take over and following God’s commands [His yoke–the Way to help us to Salvation] will finally become easy, and any cross [burden we have to carry] won’t be overwhelming but light. We see this need for the world in human development. But be ware, we might hide our prideful ways in asking for prayers in times of need or some other seemingly “good” intention, but we have to be very careful to really look into the true intentions for why we talk…is it seeking glory, praise and attention from others or is it from a genuine desire…a true need for help or honestly to help/love others. Here are four simple ways to grow in our desire for God more. If we stay with the world as our source of happiness, we will loose God forever and choose Hell for all eternity. Well, of course, we will still have wants, because that is what every choice is: doing what we want (our will). Are we crying for our children’s affection? They came from somewhere deep inside of me, perhaps a place that I didn’t even know existed. How did God love? Have we spent our life learning how to let go of the world (children, spouse, friends) or are we devastated when any of them leaves. ]” –St. The things we desire will be what He has softened our heart to. Just tragic. Seeking help, when help is needed is very good, and seeking to help/love/encourage/support others when they are in need is of course good too. It means we don't seek sin and only seek His will. Then read Romans 5:12-21. How Can I be Happy when Things go Greatly Wrong? But most of us don’t really seek to love God, hate our will and want nothing. To desire God alone means we want nothing but to love God and live His will. How Can I Save the Soul of Someone Dying? God’s eros differs from human eros in that for us erotic desire arises from our incompleteness and imperfection. Desire for Perfect Beauty. These three things can only be accomplished when a person’s mind is stayed upon the Lord. It has been filled with highs and lows. People, who do good works and want blessings from God, want good for themselves (unless we want the blessing so to not offend God–to love Him). “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. If someone simply doesn’t have the grace and the faith yet to suffer like Christ in silence, don’t leave them alone during their time of suffering so to help them carry their cross like Christ. I was angry with God, wondering why I had even given my life to serve him. Constantly humbled and amazed at his goodness, I knew that I was delighting in nothing more than my Savior himself. Focus. Will Anointing of the Sick Forgive Mortal Sins? Before we begin to answer the question, I would like to clear some things up first. If we can’t find God’s true love on earth, we won’t find Him when we die. “How sad it is to see certain [faithful] souls, like vessels richly freighted, full of good works, of spiritual exercises, virtues and gifts of God, which because they have not the courage to break with certain tastes, attachments, or affections–these are all one–never reach the haven of perfect union [on earth or in Heaven]….it is a matter of deep regret, when God has given them strengh…[but] they will not detach themselves from trifles…He, therefore, that will enter into the Divine union must put to death all that lives in his soul, whether small or great, many or few; he must abstain from all desires thereof, and be completely detached therefrom, as if neither existed for the other.”. But if we now can hear, great. And, it has been filled with more joy and blessings than I could ever begin to recall. How happy are the saints who renounced all things for God! We can’t live without love coming from either God or at least man. Sadly some never over come their desire for their attachment and live suffering from the loss–never accepting God’s will nor embracing His perfect love and peace. Too often we desire other things more than God. Anything else is loving our will (sin) over God’s and rejects God’s saving forgiving mercy from idolizing ourselves. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with God and joy. Sadly, most of the time, we don’t even realize we are seeking love from man, since we have allowed this sin to define who we are. Now, I’m not in any way saying we shouldn’t show love and have compassion towards others, so to spare them from falling into the trap from the devil, especially if they are sick and needing help. But remember going over board leads to love of man’s affections, not love of God’s consolations and the cross, and doing too little leads people into anger and self-pity and depression as they declare we really don’t love after all. I took off running, knowing that God always met me as my feet pounded the pavement. Get back to that place of worship. Banishing the pleasures of this world that we seek is one of the most challenging aspects of growing in holiness and for most it takes years to truly rid all that we crave that isn’t to know, serve or love God since we cover most of our cravings so we don’t even see them. How cunning is that devil! Our desire for God comes mainly because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is indeed good (Psalm 34:8). About five years ago, my life had fallen apart. And since we are beings that crave love, getting any feeling of “love” can easily become an addiction. The journey began with a moment of surrender, a moment when I told him that I didn’t want this journey but I would take it, a moment when I asked him to do an amazing work in me so he could do an amazing work through me. But sadly most haven’t learned God’s lessons to help bring us to salvation from the loss, and continue life as if nothing ever happened and simply go to the world to fill our void when God’s love that is waiting for us. Dena Johnson is a busy single mom of three kids who loves God passionately. But the goal for those who seek to grow in humility, is to not seek attention from anyone, but to run from it and run to the Lord instead. Joy, affections, desire, delight—all are essential parts of biblical Christianity. We must learn how to do everything out of love God through our neighbor, not ourselves. Well, because we have never truly experienced God’s fantastic love and peace He delivers in our life, or if we have we have forgotten about it and aren’t seeking it to continue in all circumstances in our life. Yet, Jesus alone is to be our life–our everything. 3. In that moment, as the words escaped my mouth, I felt the presence of my Savior. As we cry to God, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23). We can see our craving for love, approval, affection, and attention when we lack silence. Once when Jesus’ disciples wondered about the salvation of a man who desired money more than God, he said to them, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. I spent the evening sobbing over my sins, surrendering everything to my Savior. In English, to be satisfied means to have your fill of what you desire, expect or need. We need to ask ourselves, “why am I talking?” And if it isn’t for the benefit of our neighbor, it is sinful. He had a firm grip on my life, and I was willing to give his way another try. But please understand, what seem’s impossible to remove right now and horribly challenging for even let go for a moment, won’t last forever. It did not come over night and at times has been a fight, but it came. To remove all that we desire which isn’t good, we need to come to an awareness of just how often we crave love and things instead of God. Amazing!Â. Now, don’t get me wrong, of course, we can still enjoy the things of the world–that are’t directly sinful–or be loved by others, but the problem is that we seek/desire them to make us happy, to console us, to approve us, to understand us, to complete us. We don’t partake in a worldly pleasure because we have to, but because we want to. We want them to fill the void that is within us…and sadly, fill our desire for love and happiness with them and not God alone, who wants to be our everything. Desiring God alone, means we only seek what is pleasing to God...we only seek things that are to know, serve and love God. What wonderful blessings temptation, suffering and punishments are. “But what is my [Jesus’] will, except that you should want to love Me above all things and not desire anything but Me” (Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden). Desiring anything self-seeking isn’t the thoughts of someone who truly desires God alone. How Can I Console Someone Grieving and Not Lie? People, who pray wanting to experience God’s love, want pleasure for themselves. Some people might make an attempt to go to God, especially in moments of great pain, but the pining for their attachment, and not wanting or trusting in God’s will, prevents them from receiving all of the love God wants to give them. We must increase our faith. They don’t want to love God, they want Him to love them. We must abolish it. instead of spending our time seeking how we can know, serve and Love Him. We must desire God’s love alone. I began to see him use me to help others walking the same difficult path I had walked, and I was overwhelmed that he would consider me a worthy vessel. This makes our will, by nature one that seeks to love ourselves (sinful), from having a great inclination towards sin, which is anything not loving God…and if we aren’t truly looking to love God, we won’t. We are called to joy. God says forthrightly, “This is the fast I desire.” What if we viewed our fasts as a way to establish justice and bring God’s goodness to the world instead of seeking our own piety? Since our will is corrupted with the desire/inclination for sin (concupiscence), we surely can’t love God if we are offending Him with our self-love (our will). He does not give you your heart’s desire. Panic…sadly, we have made them our life source, and we feel we simply can’t live without them. God gives you the desires of your heart. We must do nothing at all that is self-seeking…just to love. We need to acknowledge we still don’t have enough faith. Gaining a saving faith–a faith that loves God above all and desires only Him is obtained through a daily transformation into the image of Christ. You can read more of Dena’s experiences with her Great I AM on her blog Dena's Devos. We need to almost running from the attention from man (if possible) so the devil doesn’t have an opportunity to grab a hold of us and drive our hearts to love the doting over and compassion so to strip away the sacrifice for souls. How To Overcome Despair Against Hope For Salvation. Having fear of sinning is wonderful and a must have, but having anxiety over our sins and having no hope for salvation keeps us from the life of peace God wants us to have... Desiring God alone can seem like an impossibility, but it truly isn't. Longing for a husband is a good desire. When the pain in our souls, as we long for God, is so great that we simply can’t stand to be without God…like we are devastatingly parched for thirst from working tirelessly in the sun…needing water (God)…then we are coming to desire God alone. Unless we have allowed God’s grace to transform us greatly, we want to be happy, comfortable and loved by man…Yes, we are self-absorbed and mostly only do what we do for our happiness. Plus, our hearts still choose other things and don’t always go to God…we still want some of the world. We have made the non-sense in this world our source of happiness. This isn’t easy since the devil has darkened us to the reality of what is a sin and what isn’t. If we are seeking the cross, we will rejoice in any neglect and praise God for the lack of love/attention from others so we can focus on receiving God’s love and loving Him through His cross, which is the true way to Christ. God is there too wagging, smiling, and waiting for us…but since we don’t know Him like we do our dogie, we can’t wait for our dog (family) instead of God, who is constantly waiting for us. If we truly have a genuine desire for God—not just the things of God or the things that come by seeking His kingdom—we will want to grow in it more. What would we do without our phones or friends! To learn more please read, “What is the Desire for Sin.”. We shouldn’t be jealous of the families that hang out and do many fun things together. I began to trust him to lead me into it. Not that God doesn’t come to us through man to support us and show us compassion when we need it so we can one day obtain the faith we need to suffer like Christ; He does. Because without much grace, those who are sick and feeling the need to be loved, need to be loved by man and doted over to feel loved at all. 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