<\/p>\n
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:11)<\/p>\n
SEEKING GOD, WE ARE WILLING TO LET GO OF ANYTHING THAT INTERFERES WITH WHAT WE MOST GREATLY LONG FOR: LIFE WITH GOD. Giving up the lesser in order to gain the greater does hurt sometimes. There\u2019s no question that self-discipline can be quite uncomfortable, even painful. It does no good to deny the pain. But this pain we gladly accept if our hearts truly burn with the passion of what matters more to us than anything else in the world.<\/p>\n
The \u201cthou shalt nots\u201d that confront us are not simply the arbitrary rules of a God who wishes to keep His creatures as unhappy as possible. There\u2019s no inherent virtue in abstinence, and God does not expect us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up. Instead, there\u2019s always some gift that God wants to place in our hands, a gift we\u2019ll have no room to hold until we put down the load of lesser packages we are presently holding. In the end, we\u2019ll see that God asked us to give up only those things that interfered with the exchange of real love.<\/p>\n
No one knows more than the victorious athlete how valuable it is to give up the lesser for the greater. Gold medals aren\u2019t won by self-indulgence. They\u2019re won by years of focused training, the choice having been made to forgo other things that might have been enjoyed in order to single-mindedly pursue a dream. While the athlete trains, he may wistfully watch while others entertain themselves living for the moment,<\/em> but he is wisely living for a goal.<\/em><\/p>\n In the Scriptures, we are taught that hope has a purifying effect. \u201cEveryone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure\u201d (1 John 3:3). To the extent that our spiritual hope matters as much as we say it does, we\u2019ll purge our lives of anything inconsistent with that hope, eager to abstain from things that even distract<\/em> us from God. If we\u2019ve paid the price to know what matters the most to us, and if we\u2019ve realized that the only thing worth having is God Himself, then our daily choices will be much easier. The joy of the Lord will be our strength.<\/p>\n \u201cWe find ourselves able to say \u2018No!\u2019 to some things because there is a bigger \u2018Yes!\u2019 burning deep within us\u201d (Stephen R. Covey).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n