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These are the original audio sessions of previous conferences discussing desire. John Eldridge aims to add more color, texture, and insight into what desire truly means. Welcome to the treasure hunt into your journey of desire!
Proverbs 4:23 “Above everything else guard your heart, for out of your heart flows the wellsprings of life.”
It is impossible to know someone, love someone, without your heart. In the same way, you cannot be known or loved unless your heart is present. Your heart is the center of the life God has given you. It is the wellspring of desire!
There is one simple truth: What you do with desire is what you do with your heart. Do you hide it? Do you give it away? Do you kill it?
Life is not a problem to be solved. Christianity is not a list of chores to get done before Dad returns. Pvt. Ryan was not saved so that he could go mow his lawn. Jack didn’t drown so that Rose would do the dishes. They were saved so that they could live!
You are living in the midst of a great story! The secrets of which are written in your heart. However, every story has a villain. Your story has a villain. But Christians don’t typically live like that. Your heart has an enemy and he is after your desire! He has one basic aim – either seduce your desire or trap it somewhere you cannot get free. These are our addictions or idolatries. It looks like comfort, it looks like love, it feels like relief! And your desire becomes captive to it.
We are all made in God’s image. Therefore, the desires of our heart mirror the desires of God’s heart. We find a disconnect when we realize the desires within us don’t correspond to life as it comes to us. We long for beauty and intimacy but constantly experience tragedy and hate.
Now we need help. We need God’s help to restore the kingdom and free our hearts from bondage. Like in any story, we need rescuing. We will hear more about this in the next episode.
THIS WEEK’S RESOURCE:
DESIRE LIVE CONFERENCE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- What’s your earliest memory of what you wanted to be “when you grew up?”
- How has the world treated that desire? Your family? Your friends? Your school?
- How have you treated your own desires? With care? Curiosity? Disdain?
- What’s the Deeper Dream? The eternal impulse underneath that dream? Adventure? Teaching? Worship?
- How do your current plans for your future/career compare to that dream? Name at least three other vocations or activities that share the same Deeper Dream and make specific plans to explore them