“In the fourth century AD, the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia were peopled by a race of men who had left behind them a strange reputation. They were the first Christian hermits, who abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live in solitude. Why? Why did they do this? The reasons were many and various, but they can all be summed up in one word as the quest for salvation. Society, which meant pagan society, limited by the horizons and prospects of life in this world, was regarded by them as a shipwreck from which every person needed to swim for their life. These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenants and values of what they knew as society... was purely and simply a disaster.” – Thomas Merton “The Wisdom of the Desert”
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I’ve been thinking about desire a lot lately. What is it I truly desire? The question has arisen in the context of my desires seemingly having been thwarted yet again. Is this what I really desire? God are you really in this? How many times can I take the mocking gut punch of unrealized desire? What DO I want?
The question may seem rather simple at first glance, but stop and ask yourself. What is it YOU desire? I suspect for some the answers may come quickly, but upon further honest reflection may reveal themselves to be fairly unaligned with those of the Kingdom or else on a flat out carnal and worldly trajectory. In which case, the question needs to be asked again, “What is the real desire lying underneath these misguided ones?” For others, I suspect the question, “What do you desire?” is so deeply and spiritually intimate that only with great difficulty could they respond with anything that felt like an authentic answer. Join us as we commemorate May 14, 1948 and Israel's 70th year in The Land and as we "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" Psalm 122:6 Correction: The First Zionist Congress was in 1897 not 1827. I transposed the years of their Diaspora in error.
A PrayerLord Jesus, I confess and repent of all forms and expressions of the sin of envy in my life, heart and will. I confess I have hated my brother, and others, thus becoming a murderer through my hateful envy, slander and backbiting; through my lack of gratitude to you for what you ARE doing in my life and HAVE given me.
I confess and repent of cherishing offense and resentment at both the real and imagined hurtful acts and words of others; I renounce the idolatry of cherishing offense and resentment as the breeding ground of envy, hatred, malice and ingratitude. Lord Jesus, I invite you to bring to my remembrance anyone and anything related to this my sin of envy, so that I may repent, bring it out into your Light, under the cleansing of your Blood, and the deliverance of your Cross. I also resist the foul spirit of envy and its attendants coming against me through the sin of envy operative in others; their envy of me, my family, my gifts and my stewardship. I bring the Cross of Jesus Christ between me and them; I bring the Love of God and forgiveness against their spirit of envy. I return blessing to them for every curse generated against me as a result of their envy. I forbid their sin and warfare to transfer to me and I break every soul tie and curse in the Name and authority of Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, I now give you my gratitude for your every grace and mercy in my life and I resist the temptation to feel envy, loss, or diminishment when I see your generosity being given to others, especially in those areas where I still feel deep desires as yet unrealized within me. I choose to praise to you and bless others. In the Name, authority, power and dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. ἀμήν -Amen “Therefore rid yourselves of all malice…and envy and slander of every kind” – 1 Peter 2:1 |