Passionate about the “Progress” but not about the Process?

If you cultivate love for the process, the progress takes care of itself.

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

If coveting is the trigger to getting what you want in prayer, then he who covets the most gets the most from God.

“Gimme Gimme I’m worth it. Oh-God I’m worth it…” If coveting is the trigger to getting what you want in prayer, then he who covets the most gets the most from God. “Gimme Gimme I’m worth it. Oh-God I’m worth it…”

“Gimme Gimme I’m worth it. Oh-God I’m worth it…” If coveting is the trigger to getting what you want in prayer, then he who covets the most gets the most from God. “Gimme Gimme I’m worth it. Oh-God I’m worth it…” When Covetousness is the way you relate to your brother, selfishness is the way you will relate to God.

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

1What causes fights and quarrels among you 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ~James 4

12For the word of God is alive and active 12For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. ~Hebrews 4

The great deception is that we can make spiritual progress without addressing our ambivalence.

The great deception is that we can make spiritual progress without addressing our ambivalence. Ambivalence: “the state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone”

There will be times in your life when it will take “all of you” to be victorious…

10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ~Deuteronomy 8

12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ~Deuteronomy 8

Satisfaction at the physical level opens the door for a thoughtlessness toward God at the spiritual level…

(After receiving the gift of freedom they forgot the Giver.) Satisfaction at the physical level opens the door for a thoughtlessness toward God at the spiritual level… (After receiving the gift of freedom they forgot the Giver.)

So the thing which impresses you most is the sweat of your brow rather than the kind providence of God.

10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ~Deuteronomy 8

Prayers for help connect you to God in times of need, prayers of gratitude connect you to God in times of plenty.

8Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. 9My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. ~Isaiah 26

8Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. 9My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. ~Isaiah 26

The “Process” has become his passion. 8Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. 9My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. ~Isaiah 26 The “Process” has become his passion.

1You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. ~Psalm 63

1“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. ~Isaiah 55

Refuse to “meet with God” in ways that do not satisfy your soul.

1You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. ~Psalm 63