I want to give thanks to GOD for rescuing me from a life of dysfunction. By His mercy and truth, I am learning to live according to His purposes and intents instead of stumbling through life bumping my head and skinning my knees and hands. I am glad to be living in such a way that minimizes harm to me, but I am most grateful for learning how to live without doing harm to others. Where purpose is unknown abuse is inevitable. You can harm yourself and others by trying to handle things before truly understanding their purpose and function. This also holds true for handling the dynamics of your soul which generates the feelings, emotions, desires, and ambitions you express. Through the counsel of GOD’s spirit, I have come to a place where I can experience liberty virtuously. For instance, I have learned that the love of physical beauty is not harmful or shallow. It is the recognition of GOD’s captivating creativity. It is the same as enjoying sweets or enjoying a good laugh or any other blessing GOD has granted us. To ignore the reality of what pleases us is to dampen the heat from the fire meant to forge true character. We can’t know who we truly are if we are unwilling to face what creation draws from within us. This is the danger of false religion. GOD never called us to live a life in rejection or denial of the pleasures and joys intermingled generously throughout creation. His plan was for us to be able to have them without them having us. GOD tells us right up front that He is a jealous GOD, and He will have us for Himself alone. For me that is beautifully flattering.
We need to be able to enjoy things in moderation. At first that may sound limiting, but think about this, how can you be full of joy if you have no bottom in you. How can you overflow if you are bottomless? You see, people have been deceived by Satan into thinking they can satisfy inordinate affections. An inordinate affection is a need that is disoriented. We were created for GOD and there are certain needs that only He can fill. When we direct those needs to other people or things it creates perversions and bondage. No variations or amounts of anything can satisfy us like the love from GOD. Even if you try to enjoy the gifts given by GOD detached from the reality that they are tokens of His love you will still not be satisfied, because you won’t have the faith needed to hold it in contentment. You will be worried about if it will last and what you need to do to make sure it does. On the other hand, you can take the Buddhist route and try to become detached from your desires all together, but think about it, isn’t that a lot like embracing death rather than celebrating life.
There is no need to repent when beauty captivates you. Pause and give glory to GOD. Make sure you worship the Creator and not the creation. Taking this approach sets the right alignment for our interactions with creation and keeps us from idolatry and corruption. Your reactions to the world around you give you valuable insight into where you are in your development as a maturing person. You cannot craft a true response without vetting your core reaction. If you do not properly process what you feel, you can become delusional about who you are, and that creates vulnerabilities in the relationships you form. When you are unaware of your strengths and weaknesses, and when you have cravings, impulses, and aversions you don’t understand, it makes it hard to map out the right steps and approaches for reaching your goals. In fact, you may not even understand why a particular goal is important or why some goals seem unobtainable. Being deluded about who you are also impairs your ability to accept valid criticism from others, which squanders growth opportunities.
To formulate the right response, we have to humbly take into consideration the universal laws of GOD. There are certain cause and effects that are beyond our control. If we try to execute a plan which dismisses this truth, then we will be faced with an enormous amount of frustration.
21 There are many plans in a man’s heart,
Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21 NKJV)
14I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14 NKJV)
To truthfully assess where you are in your development as a person, you must look into the mirror of GOD’s word. The one that created you knows the potential you have been endowed with and has set the standard for what your fulfillment will look like. That is why He is called our Alpha and Omega, and our beginning and end. Our goal has to be to live in harmony with GOD’s purposes and designs. This is the wisdom in the counsel of Christ when He tells us to seek first to submit to the will of GOD, for in that is the knowledge and wisdom to obtain everything which pertains to life and godliness. This is what the Psalmist David meant when he said of GOD, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” The instruction of GOD is the key to achieving the right balance toward experiencing true fulfillment and peace. Where the spirit of GOD is there is liberty. The liberty to enjoy life virtuously in all of its abundance.
theinscribedheart 
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