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Did I just call my God a tyrant?

       I wrote a book called "it’s all about him" this past summer that was just published a week ago. A few weeks ago, a friend challenged me about the title of my book; he asked "what does the title of my book mean?" I replied that it means whatever we do, we do it for him. He said he agreed with me but he wasn't sure about the title. He suggested the title seem to paint God as a tyrant and Christians as mere pawns that are meant to do his will. He said he used to think that way but not anymore, because he knows God has given us all free will. I replied, yes we are given free will but he wants us to make our life about him. My friend later said the book's title could be interpreted as we aren't supposed to have any personal desire and the only thing that matters were God's desire. He hadn't read the book, so I asked him to buy a copy and read it when it is published. I thought it would help him understand the title better. I decided to write about what I thought about the title and our relationship with God relating to our discussion. I believe we should forget our personal desire and pursue God's desire only, when we become Christians. WHY?
       The moment we accept Christ as our Lord and savior, our personal desire should die and must be replaced by God's desire. Why do I believe this? Our personal desires must die because it is usually contrary to God's desire.  Galatians 5:19-22 states "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
    Our personal desire is the same as our flesh's desire; it is usually selfish, self-pleasing, self-seeking and self-glorifying. This is because self only seek to please itself. Galatians 19 tells us there is no place for such people in Heaven. We must learn to let go of all those desires because we are new creatures when we become Christians. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "states therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." The moment we accept Christ as our Lord and savior, we must let go of our own former desire to please self and embrace the desire to please God.
       The desire of the Holy Spirit is the same as God's desire. It is important that we follow it because it is for our own good. God's desire can be summed in the two greatest commandments Jesus talked about in Matthew 22. God doesn't gain anything if we follow his commandments and he doesn't lose anything if we don't. If we search deeper, we would realize those commandments are for our own good. Jesus said the two most important commandment are love the Lord your God with all your heart with all soul and all your mind and love thy neighbor as thy self (Matthew 22:37-39). Following the first commandment would give us strength to obey the second one because it is only through loving God that we could truly love our neighbors. I don't need to discuss about the importance of the second commandment. If everyone loved their neighbor, the world be a completely different place.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
    God desire for us is to prosper, give us hope and a future. His desires for us are good, so we must learn to trust him by completely surrendering to him. When we accept Christ as our Lord, we are giving him total control of everything in our life including our desires. It isn't going to be easy to follow God's desire because it goes against our human nature, but that's why we have his grace. Most people try to make our personal desire God's desire and that is just wrong. We should make God's desire our own personal desire.

What are your views/ thoughts on this?

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