What I am learning from
"The Journey of Desire
Searching for the life we've only dreamed of "
by John Eldredge

Chapter 1 - Our Heart's Deepest Secret

-Our desire, if we will let it, will keep us from committing "soul-suicide", the sacrifice of our hearts on the altar of getting by. The same old thing is not enough. It never will be.
-Those timeless experiences we want to last forever whisper to us that they were meant to. We were made to live in a world of beauty and wonder, intimacy and adventure all our days. Nathaniel Hawthorne insisted, "Our Creator would never have made such lovely days and given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal."
-We must take up the quest to get our hearts back. It is a journey that most people have abandoned. They have lost heart. They have camped in places of resignation or indulgence, or are trapped in prisons of despair.

APPLICATION: Lord, help me realize when I am living without heart, without faith and I am just reacting to life by letting situations rule me and just doing what pops into my head - not my heart filled with your heart. Help me go to You in faith and let your heart of flesh overflow instead of a heart of stone I've learned in my past. I am a new person, a new creation, meant to live a life of passion and abundance like You did Jesus.

Chapter 2 - The Delima of Desire

-Desire is needed to accomplish anything of significance in this life. To do something by faith -i.e. I can't do it comfortably on my own - requires desire.

-Here is a battle that I and others have with desire, "I want more...more of God in my life...more intimacy with my friends...and I feel bad for wanting it. Everyone seems so content here [with the status quo]...and also I feel like I'm longing for nothing I'm certain of."

-Dare we awaken our hearts to their true desires? Dare we come alive?

-God's Word: Galations 5:17 "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit [desires] what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

APPLICATION: Lord, awaken my heart. Awaken my heart to be one with your heart. Take away my fear of other's reactions or rejection. I want to please You, not men. I will share my heart and desires with my friends and lead in going deep this month.

Chapter 3 - Dare We Desire?

-Again and again and again, Jesus takes people back to their desires: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7 NIV). These are outrageous words, provocative words. Ask, seek, knock - these words invite and arouse desire. What is it that you want? They fall on deaf ears if there is nothing you want, nothing you're looking for, nothing you're hungry enough to bang on a door over

-If I was a man after God's own heart like King David, I might desire God and say things like Psalm 63:1
"O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

APPLICATION: Lord, open my heart to be able to desire all you have for our relationship. Open my heart so I don't give up so easily on desiring and praying for God sized ministry.

Chapter 4 - Disowned Desire

-2 Kings 13:18-20 [Elisha said to King Joash...] Then he said, "Take the arrows," and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times." Elisha died and was buried.

That's it? What a strange story! Why was the old prophet so angry? Because the king was nonchalant; he was passionless, indifferent. He gave the ground a whack or two. His heart wasn't in it. God says, in effect, "If that is how little you care about the future of your people, that is all the help you will get." In other words, if your heart's not in it, well then, neither is mine. You can't lead a country let alone flourish in a marriage [or in ministry] with that kind of attitude.

-APPLICATION: Wow. That nails me. I would have struck the ground maybe once. My heart is not in hardly anything. I give intellectual assent to things like "I should pray for a neighbor or coworker," but I don't ask, seek and knock with passion and with my heart.

Chapter 5 - Mocking our Desire - The Impostors

-We search for the golden person. We look for the golden moment. The narcotic of pleasure - unable to get out of the dilemma of desire, we've found a powerful drug - distraction. Once we give over our desire for life - true life - to any object other than God, we become ensnared.

-I had an affair of my own this summer - with an internal frame backpack. It was outrageously expensive and totally unnecessary (I have one already). But still, I became obsessed. ...it was all I needed for life to be good...it promised adventure down the road.

-Don't be fooled by the apparent innocence of the object you've chosen. Most of our idols also have a perfectly legitimated place in our lives. That's their cover. The prophet Isaiah gives an example when he marvels at a man who cuts down a tree in the forest and then puts it to two very different uses:

Isa. 44:16-17, 19-20 NIV
Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
   over it he prepares his meal,
   he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
   he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god."

(The prophet is incredulous, "Doesn't he see what he's doing?" he wonders.)

No one stops to think,
   no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
   "Half of it I used for fuel;
   I even baked bread over its coals,
   I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
   shall I bow down to a block of wood?" (or to a bigger house, or gadget, or fun thing)
He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him;
   he cannot save himself or say,
   "Is not this thing in my right had a lie?"

So there you have it: no one stops to think. We don't want to take a good, hard look at what we are really doing, for then we might see the lie.

Application: Lord, through your strength I will not seek ultimate joy through possessions, entertainment or work accomplishments. I'll be on guard against my fleshly tendencies to put my hope in techno-gadgets or home furnishings. Help me to put my heart into knowing You and your will and living it. Amen.


Chapter 6 - The Divine Thwarter

Sometimes we have the misconception that God will go to any length to thwart the very things we most deeply want. Maybe it is because I haven't wanted to be an eternal person. I've wanted to find ultimate life here on my own. That is not possible since we were made for eternity with God and without sin.

1 Peter 1:13 "Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" not on finding ultimate life here and now.

APPLICATION: Lord, with your strength, I will stop putting my hope in material possessions and the next great thing that will make life easier/great.

Chapter 7 - The Great Restoration

We make a nothing of eternity by enlarging the significance of this life and by diminishing the reality of what the next life is all about. Most Christians have an idea that heaven is an unending church service where we'll "worship God in heaven," a never-ending sing-along in the sky.

Jesus came to restore the world and He announced the coming of the kingdom of God. Matt. 4:23 "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people " A kingdom is a realm, quite simply, where the king's word has full sway. In the final restoration, all human brokeness in all its forms is healed. Life is restored to what it was meant to be.

1 John 3:2 "...we can't imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He really is."

The earth is restored as well. Romans 8:19 "The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens."

This is significant because it touches upon the questoin, What will we do in eternity? If all we've got are halos and harps, our options are pretty limited. But to have the wole cosmos before us--Wow

APPLICATION: Don't forget about heaven. Life with Jesus here on earth is good but there is much sin and hardship around me. Don't lose site of the glory that is to come. How can I change my attitude on this? Thanks God often that this is only a tip of the iceberg of heaven.

Chapter 8 - The Grand Affair

Paul says God created gender, sexuality and marriage as a living metaphor of the relatinoship He desires with us. Ephesians 5:31-32 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church."

The Bible is the greatest romance ever written. God creates mankind for intimacy with himself, as his beloved.

The consumation of the affair is called the wedding feast of the Lamb. Now you've got to get images of Baptist receptions entirely out of your mind - folks milling around in the church gym, holding styrofoam cups of punch, wondering what to do with themselves. (Funny!) There will be dancing: Jer. 31:13 "Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well." There is feasting: Isa. 15:6 "On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples."

APPLICATION: I will desire intimacy with Christ and other people. I won't settle for going through the motions of doing "Christian" things or living purely intellectually, but I will pursue a close relationship with Christ. Lord, help me to study your word daily to know You more, not to just learn facts about You.

Chapter 9 -

-

APPLICATION: .

Chapter 10 -

-

APPLICATION:

Chapter 11 -

-

APPLICATION:


Chapter 12 -

-

APPLICATION:

Chapter 13 -

-

APPLICATION:

Chapter 14 -

-

APPLICATION:

Summary:

OVERALL APPLICATION:

Key verses to memorize:


Conclusion: