The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please himself.”

—Romans 15:2–3

Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make ourselves happy. We may put our desires aside for a time, but there’s often still a voice whispering, “I’ll get back to doing what I want later, so it’s okay temporarily.”

But when the “temporary” extends longer than we’d hoped, our desires start rearing their ugly heads. We get annoyed about how long this “pleasing and edifying my neighbor” is taking rather than getting our own time for whatever seems pleasing and edifying to us.

But if we would put off our desires for good in favor of following the Lord’s leading in our lives, how much happier and freer we would be! For “what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?” (James 4:1).

Putting our desires aside is, in the end, freedom from the sins that so easily plague us. When we do so, we finally find that running this race with endurance is worth the joy set before us—eternity with the Lord (Hebrews 12:1–2).

We are also typically quite bad at knowing what will bring us true and lasting joy; setting aside our own desires leaves us open to all the unexpected, beautiful places God wants us to go.

Putting the edification of others for their good above our own wants in favor of the Lord’s direction is the path to peace and, ultimately, to more purpose and joy than chasing our desires ever could provide.

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