What We Really Want Is Counterintuitive

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What We Really Want Is Counterintuitive
An image depicting binge watching Netflix with snacks. © 2016 Photo Copyright  trex.okiaru

What is good and satisfying is counterintuitive.

Can I be real for a moment?

I never want to go and visit a brother or sister, but I leave with such joy.

I never want to pick up the phone and talk with a beloved, but I’m always glad I did.

I never want to be bothered with what other people are struggling with. I’ve got my own problems. But, service gives me life.

The inclination when I’m tired or dejected is to do something for myself: to take “me time”, to largely abandon consideration of others and to attempt to gratify myself by eating something tasty, binge watching TV, etcetera, etcetera.

More often than not, it leaves me emptier than I was before.

But urgings of the Holy Spirit that, in my flesh, I thought would have been burdensome, in truth, turn out to be the very things that energize me!

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
— 1 John 5:3

This is not something that naturally occurs to me. I only come to the knowledge of this truth when I obey.

A wonderful example of this is in John 4 where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. He’s tired and hungry. His disciples go and buy food. They bring it to Him, urging Jesus to eat but He was so excited by sharing Life, His response was, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” — John 4:34

This is what I glean from this:

Am I hungry? Is my soul weary and need refreshment?

To be filled, I’ve got to eat and Jesus shows that eating is obedience.

Eating is to do the will of God and to participate in His work.

That’s fulfilling.

This is not apparent to the natural man. I must trust and obey, exercising myself into godliness (1 Timothy 4:7).

That’s where I will find the rest and refreshment that my soul truly desires.

One Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - One Day

NOT:

One day, I will have:
that car,
that house,
or that body,
1 John 2:15-17

BUT:

One day, I will see God:
my Redeemer,
the Lover of my soul,
in the Great Assembly of His beloved,
Job 19:25-27, John 17:20-26

AND:

When I love:
I see Him now,
in the mirror of love,
now dimly but then, face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:12

“Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” -1 Corinthians 13:12

I will not only know God but all those that are known by Him in Christ.

Oh, how wonderfully glorious!

I believe God made known and brought near through Jesus Christ.
My earnest hope and expectation is to be with Him and His.
I am assured through love. 1 John 3:14, 4:18

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” -1 Corinthians 13:13

To know God, to dwell with the beloved in the unity of the Spirit through the fellowship of Christ, to see His kingdom come everywhere in my sphere is what I labor to attain in some measure now and to enjoy fully, unrestrained, without hindrance or opposition at His coming.

This is the desire of my heart that directs the work of my hands, not the things of this world.

This is my “One Day.”

#oneday