We live in an age in the Western world where public figures encourage us to pursue pleasure, desires, comfort, and government support for our desires. I believe that is a deceptive and dangerous focus, so I disagree with almost all public figures.
A focus on the satisfaction of personal desires reveals the insight that our human desires are never fully satisfied. Pursuing their fulfilment is a lifelong treadmill. True fulfillment comes when we get off of the treadmill and search for inner peace instead of desire-fulfillment.
Human beings are made in the image of God, but rebellion, pleasure-seeking, and domination by self-focused desire has separated us from the presence and character of God to the point that we have become a faded, cracked, and contorted copy of a photograph of God. We have abandoned the continual cultivation of heart-connection with God for lesser pursuits that entangle and entrap us in self-deceptive pleasures and in tormenting thoughts.
In your finer and nobler moments, notice the remnants of God’s image (His still small voice) stirring in your heart and calling you to return to, surrender to, and daily live in obedience to His presence. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, God has made a way for you to leave your prison of guilt and shame behind and be reconciled to ongoing loving intimacy with Him.
The burnt embers of the image of God in you can become “Christ in you, the hope of glory,”–God’s eternal flame in your heart. Shift your pursuit of pleasure to the pursuit of Christ’s presence. Exchange your domination by desires (the dominion of darkness) for the kingdom of God, the full and complete dominion of the risen Jesus within and through your heart. Be reconciled to God and demonstrate that reconciliation in what you say, think, and do. Be a living demonstration to other people that they, too, can be joyously reconciled to God.
Free Gas For Your Think Tank (A blog to jog your mind and unclog your heart . . .) 