He tells us that when we are truly transformed by God, we become more "ourselves" than ever before. While we ARE called to give up our will in favor of doing HIS will instead, what that really means when we get there and look back is this: He gives us the actual desire that we had in our hearts all along. We think we know what we want. He really knows what we want, and when we sacrifice our wills to His, it is in reality sacrificing what we think we need for what we really needed all along.
It's odd to realize, but many of us don't even know what we want. Even if you ask us, you'll get vague and nebulous answers that hit around the thing that would truly make us happy. But what we can do is ask - we can present our desire to God for joy, fulfillment, meaning... and He will guide us to the very things that will give us what we need on the deepest level.
He will "give us the desires of our heart", in both senses of the words. He will give us the desires themselves, and then He will give us the fulfillment of those desires. He will show us what we really want, even though we may not have known it previously... and then He will give us the thing that we desired all along.
And along the way, we learn to give. We learn to value others above ourselves. We learn to be generous and kind, patient and loving, good and true. Those things are thrown in, along with the Kingdom of Heaven, when we put Him first. Pretty amazing plan He's got for each of us.
But fear, the old enemy, usually stands in our way. We can't just "stop being afraid", but we can ask for courage. We can feel the fear and do it anyway. That's what bravery is. Like the picture says above, everything we want in life lies on the other side of the fears that incapacitate us. But God is bigger than our fears.
God, we trust You with our lives. Please help us to find what we truly need, and really be ourselves for the first time.
2 comments:
Very well stated and explained.
thanks
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