Desires

Are you making decisions based on emotion or wisdom? Let’s talk about our desires and how we can learn to take control of them. The more we choose wisdom over our desires/emotions the more freedom we find.

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I'm Alexa Lauren and welcome to my podcast, Heart of a Seeker. Today's episode is called Desires. Before we jump in, I do want to mention that on July 28th, I will be launching my 30-day prayer book on anxiety. So make sure if you haven't already subscribed to my mailing list, you can go through my link tree in my bio and you can get a little more information about the launch, and you can join the mailing list on there for the book release. The book will be compiled of different prayers, different types of things that we go through in life that might trigger our anxiety and prayers for those things. So it's called 30 Days of Prayer Bye by Anxiety and learning to surrender it to God and begin to seek Him to help us overcome some of these things that trigger our anxiety. So before we get started, I do want to open up in prayer. Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for your love, your kindness, your mercy. Thank you that you're a good father and that this word would come and fall on good soil and take deep root in the hearts of those listening today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as I mentioned a little earlier, today's message is called Desires. And I've been thinking a lot about how we sometimes struggle with certain things that we might be going through. Even as Christians, you know, we still have certain desires, and it's sometimes difficult to submit those things to God. So I really wanted to kind of piggyback off of my last episode called It's Okay that talks about the mistakes we commit in life and how we begin to overcome that and how we're forgiven and how, like God is a good father, like any good parent that would want what's best for their child, that they give us the guidance and wisdom. But sometimes we choose to do things our own way. And when I mean we choose to do things our own way, we sometimes follow our own desires, whether it's through emotion or through wisdom. So I wanted to kind of go a little further on that topic today, because I know even myself, I definitely would not pretend that I have it all together. I still have a lot of personal struggles, a lot of things that I sometimes deal with on a daily basis, or occasionally they come up or surface, certain behaviors that when I'm overwhelmed, I might want to gravitate towards. And so I just really felt God putting this message on my spirit, and I really wanted to talk a little more about it. So one thing that I wrote down, and I've said this before, is deliverance comes through obedience. Often we feel like we're having these struggles and we don't know how to like let them go and to stop surrendering ourselves to the things we want to do. But I've also come to learn that deliverance comes through obedience, meaning that the more times we choose to do the things God's calls to do, the more we choose wisdom over our emotions and fleshly desires, the more we will begin to be delivered in those areas. And what really great scripture is in James 4.7 that says, submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And I know I've said this in other podcasts, but I always gravitate towards this because another way to really overcome our struggles and our desires is by submitting ourselves to God, to the things that he's called us to, to the protection he set forth through his word and through his wisdom. It's not that, like I said in it's okay in the podcast, it's okay. It's not that God wants to control us, it's that he has set forth these words of wisdom in his word, things of guidance and really for our protection, not because he wants us to have a miserable life, but if anything, he wants us to have a blessed life and reduce the amount of suffering we have due to our own fleshly desires and choices that we make. But at the end of the day, like I always say, it's our choice which direction we want to take. So I looked up what obedience meant. And this was something I struggled with a lot, especially when it comes to marriage and submitting to your spouse as if submitting to the Lord. That was a very difficult concept for me to wrap my head around. And throughout time, God has begun to show me and teach me what true submission is. So first I'm gonna read the dictionary version of what obedient means. And it says, submissive to another person's will. And then another one says the willingness to yield to someone else, you put your own desires below theirs. Meaning, even though we may want to do something, even if we feel like, oh, this would be better, we submit, we kind of deny that desire that we want to do and trust that the person leading us wants what's best for us. And submission isn't through a control aspect, it's out of love for the person that you love and trust that person enough to do and lead you in the right direction is the hope, right? And so that's why often God tells us to pray for our leaders and for the people in our lives and our pastors and the people that are guiding us because we are human and we're not gonna always get it right. And sometimes we do make mistakes. So we need to be covering one another in prayer, but also we submit under love, hoping that they're gonna take us the right direction. So the next thing I want to talk about is that I used to feel like deliverance was something extravagant, like something where someone prays for you and you're delivered instantly and you no longer struggle again. Now, that happens sometimes. There are miracles where people get prayed for and they are delivered in an instant and they don't go back to their old former ways. But I've also realized that in order to continue walking out our life, we have to learn to be obedient. We have to learn to practice self-control and be self-disciplined. And I really feel like that's something God is really teaching me in this season in my own personal life. Like I said, I still continue to struggle with different things. And that's the reason why I created this podcast, because even through it's modeled after the psalmist David. And even though David had many struggles and fell short in so many areas, he was still called a man after God's own heart. Because at the end of the day, God wants relationship with us and he wants our heart. Because as we seek God and we get in his presence, we're going to be transformed. So I wanted to say that something like I was mentioning earlier, that I used to think, you know, deliverance was something extravagant. But one thing God is teaching me is it's not always the case. Often, through learning the self-discipline and learning self-control, the submission of the flesh, it is where we find deliverance. When we begin to submit our fleshly desires, the things that we think we want to do, it's in that place that God begins to deliver us the more we say no to the things of the world or the things that we think would bring us true happiness and saying yes to the things of God. I feel that is where we find true deliverance. In James 1.22, it reads, but be doers of the word and not hearers only and deceiving yourself. Meaning, let's not just read the word, but let's actually apply the word to our life. Let's actually do the things God's called us to do and not deceive ourselves. Let's not lie to ourselves and say, oh, well, you know, just this one time, just this, just that. And then what happens is sometimes when we give in to our fleshly desires and it doesn't align with God's will for our life and submitting to the will God has for us, we then sometimes spring up that anxiety and sometimes that depression comes, or sometimes the worry comes because we feel like we did something and now we're worried about the consequences we might suffer or face because of the choices we made out of our fleshly desires. In Isaiah 119, it says, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. And I really loved that when I read it. I was like, wow, I I I don't remember ever reading this. It says, if you are willing and obedient. And I was like, wow, it says willing. It didn't just say if you're obedient. It says if you're willing and obedient, like if you choose to take that stuff, if you choose to deny yourself, then you will eat the good of the land. God will bless you because you're now being able to walk freely in his truth. Because what happens when we choose, again, like I said, our fleshly desires, we begin to struggle with anxiety and depression. We begin to hide from God, like Adam and Eve did when they were, when they ate the forbidden fruit, they then felt like, oh my gosh, we sinned. We did something we shouldn't. They were hiding from God. And that's what I feel like we do. Instead of running towards God, sin separates us. It makes us feel ashamed and feel like, oh, well, I messed up. I can't go back now. Like I just have to continue in this place and stay here. And that's not what God wants. That's the biggest lie of the enemy. And God wants you to step forth, even when you've struggled, even when you've fallen short, to say, you know what? I'm gonna pick myself back up. I'm gonna keep striving to get in the presence of God and be transformed in his presence. In Luke 11, 28, it says, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. So through hearing God's word, applying God's word to our life and hearing it and keeping it dear to our heart, I really believe it's in those moments that God's going to begin to deliver us, that He's gonna begin to guide us, that He's gonna begin to strengthen us. And through those very moments, we will begin to see great change in our lives and more peace. And I feel like it's in those places that when we finally surrender, we begin to know the peace that surpasses all understanding, that even when we don't understand, even when things don't make sense sense to us, we still find that peace that surpasses all understanding. In 1 Peter 1:14, it says, as obedient children, do not be conform to the passions or the desires of your former ignorance. Meaning, maybe there was a time in your past that you found a lot of joy, a lot of temporary joy, a lot of fulfillment through fulfilling our desires of the world. You know, whether I'd been excessively drinking and partying or having sex with people or, you know, messing around or submitting ourselves to the things of the past, um, the love of money making. And eventually we get to a point where maybe those things don't fulfill us anymore. Maybe we get to a point where it's like, okay, I've been doing this, it seemed fun for a while, it was enjoyable in the moment. But ultimately, if we're honest with ourselves and don't deceive ourselves and continue to stay in that place of thinking, oh, this really brings me joy. I feel like as we begin to see the truth for what it is, we know deep down inside we want something more. I feel like we sometimes get to a point in life where we have to ask ourselves, is what I'm doing really bringing me true joy and true fulfillment? And I know I got to that point one day in life. I remember uh I shared this in one of our uh podcasts earlier this month or this couple weeks ago called Perspective. And I shared a little bit about my testimony, but I remember at 21 getting to a point where I was partying all the time, going out, you know, living the lifestyle that I thought was fun. And eventually I stopped one day and thought, this is not who I want to be. This is not what I want. Like I was alone, I was depressed, I was anxious, I really was not content. And though it was fun for the moment, it did not bring true fulfillment. I remember one day thinking, wow, God, um there has to be something more. There has to be something more. I'm so tired of giving into, you know, these thoughts of what my life should look like, but I really want to know what else you have for me. And actually, this week on July 18th, um, will be my baptism anniversary. I was baptized on July 18th, 2009. And that day I remember when I got baptized, I literally felt like a new creation. I felt like the old was washed away and that something new was being done in me. And that's when I began my journey of just really seeking God to begin to change me. And that does not mean that I have it all together. There's still, and I'm always going to be as transparent as possible. Um, there's still things that I struggle with and things that I still have to learn to submit. And I do see that often when I've struggled in the area of self-discipline and self-control, that has manifested in other parts of my life, such as even overeating sometimes and struggling with my weight, and struggling with getting things done and tasks and so many other areas that we sometimes don't think that the lack of self-discipline and self-control would affect, but it does. And so I really wanted to share this message today because I know there's so many of us that might be struggling with letting go of our former ways and realizing that there's something better out there. And I truly believe God wants us to truly know him and not about religion. It's not about going to a church necessarily. Yes, I truly believe in the body of Christ, and I believe that in community and coming together and not doing life alone and coming together with other believers. But I also know that something even deeper than that is truly having a relationship with God. It's not about just listening to a sermon on a weekend or once a week or talking to a friend here or there, going to a group once a week. It's really about encouraging you to know who God is by reading his word. Because, like I said earlier, we don't always have it all together. There's times where maybe we might misquote something in the Bible or we might say something that's not, you know, lining up with God's word. Maybe we misunderstood something. So I always encourage people to really get in their word and really begin to seek God and ask God, please, Lord, make me sensitive to your spirit. Make me sensitive to hear from you. May I begin to read your word and may it come alive to me as I read it. And may you begin to apply God's word of wisdom over your life. May you begin to seek ways to follow Him. And I really want to encourage you to begin to ask yourself some of those questions. Like, is this really bringing me fulfillment? Is this really making me happy? And I want you to be graceful with yourself the times that you do fall short and pick yourself back up and not stay in that negative place of beating yourself up because God says that He forgives us, that He is just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we ask for forgiveness. And if you don't already have a relationship with God and you desire to have one and to know him, it's as simple as saying, believing and saying, God, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that he rose again on the third day so that I could have eternal life. And asking God to please forgive you for your past choices and to teach you his ways and to begin to seek him by opening his word. And he will guide you and he will begin to change your heart. And it doesn't matter where you're there is, it doesn't matter what you're struggling with right now. If you truly believe that Jesus came and died on the cross for your sins, I do believe that you would be saved. And you can begin to walk in that new authority and that new life by walking with him. I want to go ahead and close us in prayer. Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for your love. Thank you that Jesus, your son, came and died on the cross for our sins. Thank you that he is a good father, Lord. Thank you that he intercedes for us at your right hand, that he prays for us, Lord, that we're not alone and that you are very much alive, speaking to our hearts and ministering to us. I pray that we be transformed daily in your presence. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Before I close out, if you don't already follow me on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook, my handle is I'm Alexa Lauren. You can also reach me through my bio. There's a link in there, my link tree. And you can subscribe to the book release. You can also follow other podcasts that I have. You can go through the links there and listen to other podcasts. You can also subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. And also remember on July 28th, I'll be releasing my book, Bye Bye Anxiety, 30 Days of Prayer, Bye Bye Anxiety. And it will be a free ebook that you can access through my website if you don't get it through the mailing list. It will be sold on other platforms, but I did want to make it available for free for people through my website. If you know anyone that struggles with anxiety, make sure to get a copy so you can also send to them. And thank you so much for listening and have a blessed week.