Desires,Goals, Plans, Counsel, Actions, Motivation

UV 1613/10000 Desires, Plans, Counsel, Actions and Motivation
Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
Psalm 20 v 4
Many people think that the scriptural emphasis on “dying to one self” implies dying to one’s desires. Desires per se are not wrong. Contrary to Buddha’s teaching, desires are not the cause or source of evil or suffering in this world. The Lord in fact operates through the working of our desires. Scripture states that “ a desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul.” We need not have a guilt feeling about entertaining desires. But the desires need to be in agreement with the law or the word of God. God manifests Himself or revels in fulfilling our godly desires. Jesus knocks at the door of our heart to fulfil our desires both eternal and earthly while sin crouches at the same door to make us fall by some measure of illegitimacy or excess or wrong motive in the desires. The wise will open the door of their heart to Jesus, the Prince of Peace while the worldly-wise or foolish will open the door to temptation and allow their hearts to be in unrest, temptation and tempest.
Scripture also states that desires will not be gratified instantly and without any effort on our part. We need to make plans but the best of plans would fail without the Lord’s guidance, wisdom and blessing. Planning involves careful goal-setting, scheduling of activities to fulfil the goals, constant review and monitoring and mid-stream correction and using feedback to improve on efforts or performance. I like what Jim Rohn has said about actions or activities-that activities bring something out of nothing and are therefore comparable to the act of creation by the Lord at the beginning. Before making plans, we should seek counsel from multiple sources- the experts and experienced in the field. Before making plans and executing them, we should pray that our efforts will not be vain but will bear fruit or achieve expected results.
When the Lord sees that we have been prayerful, determined, faithful, hopeful, diligent and wise, He will bless our plans with more than the expected level of success. He checks the motives behind our desires. If we delight in doing His will, He will grant us our desires. If we delight in His word, He will surprise us with remarkable success in all that we do as Psalm 1 promises. When we seek the counsel of the Lord in making and executing plans to fulfil our desires, He will give us extraordinary wisdom, grace and breakthroughs that we cannot come by in the normal course of things. The Lord will build the edifice or house of our desires according to His masterplan, converging in it all the little plans we have made. He will not do the actions that we can do but He will egg us on or motivate us and enable us to stay inspired, to run and not get tired, to rise on wings of prayer and the word above the limitations and constraints of our visual circumstances.

Prateep V Philip