As I finished this article last time I shared this thought: Jesus asks us to tell Him the thoughts of our minds and to let them go into His hands, thereby cleansing our inner selves and making us whole and wholesome. This would seem to be a simple procedure except for one other   hurdle: our desire to enjoy the evil our minds concoct. Sometimes we neither want to repress our evil thoughts nor to give them up; we want to concentrate on them and enjoy them. Consequently, one person can enjoy plotting how he will bring vengeance on his enemy, and another person may enjoy her lustful thoughts, and another person may enjoy another’s bad fortune.

Therefore, after we are ready to admit honestly our evil before Jesus, one thing more is required – to desire to be rid of it. Even this desire, however, is a gift. Just as we cannot heal ourselves or change ourselves in any permanent way, neither can we desire to do so on our own. This desire comes from God. “It is God, for his own loving purpose, who puts the will and the action into you” (Philippians 2:13).

All we can do on our own, then, is to desire the desire. The rest is God’s work. What a comfort to know how little really relies on our own capabilities! Though small, however, this is still a great challenge; it is about as much as human beings can handle. But we can handle it; it is not outside our grasp. It is good to know that God does not ask the impossible or the unusually difficult; He asks of us only what we can do, and He promises to do the rest in the process of our spiritual growth.

I realize that this probably confuses some of my readers since we always want to be in control and to feel that we are the ones accomplishing any growth. What is important for us to remember is that we must first desire to have the desire to spiritually grow. If we don’t, God can’t really do anything about our growth.