Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.  

Proverbs 13:12

Mankind was designed to live with a heart full of hope. It began in the Garden.  
Adam, walking in wholeness and obedience, named the animals. Yet as he named each one, something unsettling began in his heart. In fact, maybe we could say God was setting him up. As he named each animal, this unanswered desire arose in his heart.  

“None of these animals are like me!”

With each step, this powerful desire grew.  A true need arose within Adam. He needed someone like him. Someone to walk alongside him as he fulfilled his destiny. He needed a woman. He needed Eve.

And God provided for Adam’s desire and  the provision became a “tree of life” for Adam. Oh, you might say that that could not be true because Eve was tempted, fell, and led Adam away from a path of life, but yet, she did become a tree of life. Through her body would be birthed the Tree of Life for all of us.

How often mankind struggles with desire! We try to kill desire, avoid desire, train desire, anything but understand our desire. Perhaps a different way of looking at desire could be profitable for us.

Could we ask the following question of the desires we find in our hearts?

What is the legitimate godly expression of this desire?  Read more...