Christian Living on Desires

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We are people of desire. We want things

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 32:22-32, Exodus 33:18-23 , 1 Samuel 1:9-20, Psalm 42:1-2, Mark 10:46-52, John 4:7-26

We are people of desire. We want things. We long for things. It is primal to our nature to yearn. As Saint Augustine reflected, “The whole life of the good Christian is a holy longing. . . . That is o...

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Ask, Seek, Knock

Author

Jenny Child

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Scripture

1 John 5:14, James 4:3, Matthew 13:45-46, Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 7:7-8, Romans 8:15-16, Mark 10:46-52

May we ask according to your will, not according to our desires, for you will give us what is right for us. May we seek you as the pearl of great price, not half-heartedly but with our whole being, fo...

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O Jesus Christ, who fed the multitudes

Author

John E. Skoglund

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 14:19-20, John 6:35, Jeremiah 15:16, Colossians 3:16, Mark 10:43-45

O Jesus Christ, who fed the multitudes upon the hillside, feed us now with your Word, that we too may be filled. Amen. God of truth, who desires that we live by your truth, may the words spoken this d...

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Made to See

Author

Jen Pollock Michel

Keywords

Scripture

Ezekiel 36:26, Mark 10:21-22, James 1:14-15, Jeremiah 17:9-10, Psalm 139:23-24, Matthew 6:22-24

In her engaging treatment, Teach us to Want , Jen Pollock Michel describes both the beauty and pain of seeing our own sinful nature: It is often true that once we are made to see, we don’t like w...

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Our Loves Can’t Hold the Weight of our Expectations

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:4-26, Genesis 22:1-19, Luke 10:38-42, Mark 10:17-27, Matthew 6:33

The ultimate reason for our misery, however, is that we do not love God supremely. As Augustine so famously put it in prayer, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they fin...

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Savior Jesus, we confess that all too often we are incapable of looking

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Mark 10:35-45, Philippians 2:3-7, Psalm 139:23-24, John 3:1-17, Mark 10:17-27

Savior Jesus, we confess that all too often we are incapable of looking beyond our own ambitions. We get wrapped up in prestige and position, leaving you behind for our own aspirations. Forgive our mi...

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We All Need Blessing

Author

Lloyd John Ogilvie

Keywords

Blessing

Scripture

Ephesians 1:3, James 1:17, Philippians 4:19, Matthew 5:3-12, Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17, Genesis 27:1-40

We all need [blessing] desperately. It is the one great need we all share in common. We were born for it and there is no lasting joy without it. What oxygen is for the lungs and protein for the body, ...

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Author

A. W. Tozer

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 17:20, Matthew 19:20, Mark 10:27, Luke 1:37, Luke 18:27, Colossians 3:23-24, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 4:13, Philippians 2:13

God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.

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Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 27:4, Luke 15:11-32, Mark 10:17-22, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10

We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we cannot help being happy: we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which ...

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You are our strength, Lord, we will

Author

Moucan

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 15:27, Psalm 18:1-2, Psalm 57:1, Mark 10:47, Ephesians 1:18

You are our strength, Lord, we will love you, under the shadow of your wings, protect us. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us, that you may open the eyes of our hearts. We shall call to you with the...

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Author

Henry Drummond

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 22:37-40, Revelation 21:1-4, Mark 10:17-27, John 3:16, Romans 8:38-39, 1 John 4:16

We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift.

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Author

Alain de Botton

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-14, Mark 10:13-16, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, Romans 12:10, Philippians 2:4

True love is a lack of desire to check one’s smartphone in another’s presence.

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The Danger of Service Alone

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:3-8, Colossians 3:23-24, Mark 10:42-45, 1 John 4:19, Luke 10:38-42

The fact that our works are done in the service of God is not enough, by itself, to prevent us from losing our interior life if we let them devour all our time and all our strength. Work is good and n...

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A Seed of Wanting to Be the Boss

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:42-45

People in the world naturally want to boss others. Imagine a boy beginning work with a firm. He has a lowly place and is ordered around by everyone. Do this! Do that! Every dirty job is his. He is the...

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An Analogy of Childlike Prayer

Author

M. Basil Pennington

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14-15, Matthew 6:9, Psalm 131:2, Romans 8:15

A father is delighted when his little one, leaving off her toys and friends, runs to him and climbs into his arms. As he holds his little one close to him, he cares little whether the child is looking...

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Lord Jesus Christ, you gave up

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:5-8, Matthew 20:26-28, 1 Peter 5:5-6, Luke 14:11, Matthew 5:3, Mark 10:43-45

Lord Jesus Christ, you gave up everything to come down from heaven in order to love and serve us. Unlike you, we find self-sacrifice hard. Most of us look for ways to puff ourselves up, so that we loo...

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Free to Love and Be Loved

Author

Lisa Sharon Harper

Keywords

Scripture

Hosea 1:null, Hosea 2:null, Hosea 3:null, Matthew 16:18, Mark 10:13-16, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9-10, Ephesians 2:4-5, Acts 4:9-10, Acts 13:9

Here’s a testimony from Lisa Sharon Harper, author of The Very Good Gospel: Harper grew up as a child of a single mother. After her parents divorced, she and her mother moved from Philadelphia where ...

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Father, as adults, we can fool

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 136:1, Matthew 19:13-15, 1 John 4:9-10, Mark 10:21, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 15:5, Psalm 121:1-2

Father, as adults, we can fool ourselves into being quite self-sufficient. Yet, You have called us to be precariously dependent upon You. When we see how Jesus welcomes the little children, we can als...

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O Lord Jesus Christ, enthroned in the

Author

William Barclay

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-13, Ephesians 4:2, Luke 22:26-27, 1 Peter 5:5, Mark 10:43-45

O Lord Jesus Christ, enthroned in the majesty of heaven, who, when you came forth from God, did make yourself one that serves: We adore you because you did lay aside the garment of your glory, and clo...

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Power is for Service

Author

Spiritual Disciplines

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 22:27, Matthew 23:11, Philippians 2:5-7, Galatians 5:13, John 13:14-15, Mark 10:45

The way most of us serve keeps us in control. We choose whom, when, where and how we will serve. We stay in charge. Jesus is calling for something else. He is calling us to be servants. When we make t...

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Author

Thomas Aquinas

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 15:7, 11, Psalm 9:18, Psalm 41:21, 31, Proverbs 19:17, Proverbs 22:16, Mark 10:21, James 2:14-17, Matthew 19:21, Mark 12:43, Luke 18:22, Luke 21:1-3

Hence, whatever certain people have in superabundance is due, by natural law, to the purpose of succoring the poor.

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Fathers and Faith

Author

Lee Strobel

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:6-8, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:8-9, Mark 10:17-22, Galatians 2:16

In his book The Case for Grace , pastor and author Lee Strobel describes a dream he had as a child after having a significant argument with his father. Strobel does what most of us would do at that...

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Free us, Lord, from our obsession with

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 16:24, Acts 2:44-45, James 2:14-17, Mark 10:43-45, 1 John 3:17-18, John 13:14-15, Isaiah 58:6-7

Free us, Lord, from our obsession with ourselves long enough to care for others; to be so concerned about the well-being of the human community that me don’t have to worry about our place, our church,...

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Author

Bryan Chapell

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:5, Luke 18:9-14, John 15:1-8, Mark 10:17-27, Galatians 3:3, Ephesians 2:8-10

Challenges to holiness without mention of grace force a human-centered religion. After all, people cannot do what they are told to do apart from Christ’s grace. That’s John 15:5, right? “Apart from me...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23-24, Mark 10:17-22, Ephesians 2:8-9, Isaiah 64:6, Revelation 3:15-16, Matthew 7:21-23

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might be even more difficult...

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Author

Thomas Aquinas

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:13, Mark 10:17-22, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 22:34-40, Galatians 5:6, James 2:26

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

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Humility Despised in Paul’s Day

Author

Jerry Bridges

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 57:15, Mark 10:43-45, James 4:6, Ephesians 4:2, Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:12

In the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s day, humility was a despised trait. They viewed it as a sign of weakness. And our culture today is no different from that world of two thousand years ago. Maybe it’s...

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A Day with Jesus

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:13-16, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 9:10-13, John 15:15, Mark 5:35-43

A group of fourth-graders at a Christian school was given an assignment to draw what they would like to do if Jesus spent a day with them. After working diligently on their pictures, one little girl a...

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Gracious God, your Son Jesus came not

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:45, Romans 12:10, 1 John 3:18, 1 Peter 5:2-3, Ephesians 4:32, John 10:11, Matthew 20:28

Gracious God, your Son Jesus came not be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He is our Good Shepherd, whose leadership is less about the love of power, and more about the ...

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Author

David Livingstone

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 20:35, Proverbs 3:9, 2 Corinthians 9:7-8, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33-34, Philippians 3:7-8, Matthew 13:44-46

I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving o...

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