I am a fan of good coffee. Not just any coffee is good coffee, if you like coffee! The taste, not the buzz, is the pursuit and the goal. I’ve walked and looked for the best-tasting coffee here in my city and met with some success. Some of my friends, though, who shall remain nameless, prefer tea over coffee. I don’t understand it, and I don’t aim to! It’s not a “desire” of mine.
We all have desires and inclinations of the heart, pursuits of goals we aim to reach in order to be satisfied.
As Christians, we recognize that not all the desires of our hearts are holy or pure. We often pursue things we shouldn’t anymore. While our hearts have been made new, they are also being made new. The desires natural to our old sinful nature are being broken and overcome by the power of Jesus at work for us and in us to conform us into His image. In Him we have a new righteous nature.
Still, we often do indulge and satisfy our sinful appetite and desires.
Many Christians at this point will experience regret - a sense of remorse. The conscience is stricken and the actions are exposed to the understanding of the mind and heart as being what they are: sin. But regret will often only construct a detour, not change the final destination. Regret may change my methods (my approach to something), but only repentance can change my desires (what I’m really after). Changed methods will still lead you back, around, under or over to unchanged desires.
The sinful desires of our heart, if not yielded to the grace of Jesus and repented of, at best will never be satisfied with anything less than the present sin luring it away; at worst they will be multiplied.
The heart languishes in regret, but is renewed through repentance.
What are you really after?
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