Monday, February 29, 2016
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You know, a sunny winter day can fool you. You look out the window and tell yourself, "It looks warm." Then you go out there and you 'shiver your timbers' and catch a cold! But there is something that the sun can really warm even on a cold winter day.
Remember the old science experiment? You put a board out there, let's say a two-by-four. You hold a glass over that board and then you let the sun shine on that through the glass. Eventually the board is going to get very warm, and it might start to smoke. You could probably burn your initials into the wood if you did it long enough.
It's the same sun, so what's the difference? That piece of glass is the difference. Why? Something transforming happens when you focus all that heat on one spot.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Focused Passion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 5:15, "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well" As this unfolds we begin to realize this is talking about the physical relationship of a husband and wife. It says, "Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love."
Okay, now God's obviously talking about physical passions here, physical love. He's addressing married people about those sexual desires. He's saying, "Focus your passions on one person. Don't let your desire wander to anybody else." See, focused passion is a choice. In fact, in the King James Version it says, "Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times." This is a volitional choice. It's to say, "You know what, I've decided she is enough, he is enough." It's a choice. And you immediately reject any thought that suggests how desirable someone else might be. Whether someone in person or on a website, in a photo. You see, marriages don't die suddenly. It starts with a wandering heart.
It goes something like this. Restlessness leading to discontentment, which leads to lust after someone else, which leads to – and you can be sure the devil will make this happen – an opportunity to act on that lust, and then a moral crash. And even if it never goes past the discontentment stage, you hurt both partners over and over again.
I remember a couple, I'll call them Scott and Sandy, and Scott said, "Even though I'm in ministry, I've struggled with lust. And I've really dug into God's Word and I've dealt with it and I've just made a decision before God to be satisfied with Sandy. She is who God gave me." Plato said, "Contentment is not getting everything you ever wanted to have, it's realizing how much you already have." Well, let's apply that to a marriage relationship.
You've got to stop lust when it's just restlessness. As soon as those thoughts and fantasies start to involve anybody else, even an image on a website, you begin to lose your focus on your lifetime partner. You lose the fulfillment that can only come from commitment to one person, and you fuel your restlessness, your lust. Welcome to the road to disaster.
Remember that board in the sun and focusing all that warmth on one spot? It transformed things. Things started to happen. It's the same with marriage. Keep all your love, all your fantasies, all your romance, all your sexual needs and desires focused on that one lifetime partner. And let God show you the fire of focused passion.