Passion 2011

This is an attempt at gathering my thoughts from Passion 2011. There was no better way for me to start the New Year than in sweet fellowship with my father. What an incredible blessing it was to watch 22,000 college students worship our all-knowing God and how precious it was to listen to how our God is stirring each heart towards huge things for His glory. 

Lately I have had a really difficult time trying to discern what it looks like for me to live completely satisfied in the Lord. If I am honest with myself I am not to a point where I am completely satisfied in the Lord ALONE. I would ask myself what does this look like and how is this possible to live this way? Can anyone actually place ALL of their satisfaction in a SINGLE person?

I have been in constant prayer to the Lord to reveal my strongholds and the things of this world that are keeping me from this complete satisfaction. It is unbelievable to me how the Lord's timing is so perfect. This is a question I have been caught up in for weeks now. Going into Passion my prayer was that I would get to a point where the Lord was all I needed, that he was the ONLY ONE who satisfied all of my desires. That there would be an awakening in my heart that I would come to realize what it was keeping me from placing my FULL satisfaction in Him.

The first night Louie Gigglio spoke from Philipians 1. He spoke on making our lives count for what matters most. He asked us to pray this prayer, "Lord, would you eliminate all of the desires of our hearts that do not matter for your fame and your glory." He discussed the reasons why we should want to link our chains to Christ versus the other unimportant desires.

The next day Andy Stanley spoke on our Appetites. He described our appetites as something that will either rule me or I will rule it. He talked about how we can lose our influence because of our appetites and how our response to our appetites will determine the direction of our lives. Our appetites are something that are never fully and finally satisfied by no one or nothing. He challenged us to step back and ask ourselves, is it really worth trading my future for this appetite? Galatians 5 says that we are to walk by the spirit and not gratifying the desires of our flesh. If I am honest with myself often times I want what my flesh wants. Why? Because it appeals to my flesh. But like Paul says in Galatians 5:17, We cannot live submitted to the Spirit and at the same time gratifying the flesh, because these two "are opposed to each other".

Both of these sermons challenged us to resist temptation by eliminating desires/appetites that are not from the Lord. It is only by the Lord that we can do this. Because selfish Kelsie wants a lot. Selfish Kelsie wants the American Dream. Selfish Kelsie wants to buy out Ann Taylor Loft. And I really think all of this will satisfy me? Thank you Jesus that, "We were created for so much more than ourselves." (Matthew 10:39)