Hey there! I’d like to introduce you to a very cool person—Liz the rockin’ YW intern! You will be hearing from her in these little intro letters for the next few months—she’s going to serve as your e–devo tour guide. And let me tell you, you’re gonna be so blessed! She is the COOLEST!! So, let me (Laurin) hand things over to my good friend and companion on this journey of knowing Jesus—Liz Cuenin (or Lizard as I like to call her) . . . Hi there! Happy July! I’m so excited to be able to walk with you the next few months and share this journey of growing closer to Jesus! This month we’re going to be looking into the desires we have and how they fit in with God’s plan for our lives. Does God care about what we want? How can we talk to Him about the stuff that we want? When we decided to follow God does that mean that we have to shelve what we want? If you’ve got dreams and things that light up your heart, you’ll want to tune in! I hope you’re enjoying summer as much as I am! There is just something about summer that makes me want to spontaneously burst into song and dance. (Neither of which I do well!) However, since I usually don’t have enough guts to give into my theatrical tendencies, I leave the spontaneous song and dance moments to the fun people I find on the wonderful invention called YouTube! Check this video out for a great laugh! Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k Have a great first week of July! Liz
YW Intern
Here's this week's devo: IF I WERE TO WRITE MY LIFE, I HAVE CERTAIN DREAMS ABOUT THE WAY IT WILL PLAY OUT—THINGS I WANT TO DO, WAYS I WANT TO LIVE. BUT WHAT DOES GOD THINK OF THESE DESIRES AND DREAMS OF MINE? [READ]There are two ways a lot of us try to handle our desires. One is to assume that if we want something, then that desire must be wrong. We might assume that because Jesus told His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The other extreme a lot of us take with our dreams and desires is that if we have a desire in our heart, then God must have planted it there because He wants us to be fulfilled. That approach assumes that all of our desires are good because Jesus said: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). But the truth about our desires lands somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. [THINK]When we decided to follow Jesus we laid down everything in our lives before Him. Romans 12:1 says we became living sacrifices, surrendering our lives—including our dreams and desires—to God. We gave Jesus free reign over our lives, to paint us like a blank canvas into any masterpiece He wants. That’s what having Jesus as Lord and Master of our lives looks like. But does that mean that every single desire we ever have is wrong? Or not even wrong—maybe just not the same as God’s? Does that mean we spend the rest of our lives walking around as empty vessels with no interests and no passions anymore? No, not at all. God doesn’t want us to be passionless and dreamless. The Bible tells us that God works through our desires. [God] fulfills the desires of those who fear him (Psalm 145:19). Even though we gave God free reign over our lives, handing over ourselves to Him, He gives a lot of our dreams and desires back to us because that’s the way He made us and put us together. God isn’t against our dreams and desires—some of the dreams and desires we have are from Him. And He enjoys fulfilling them. [MORE]God cares about what we want, He just wants us to be willing to offer our desires up to Him so He can work through us without a bunch of obstacles in the way. Sometimes the Holy Spirit actually works through us by changing and moving our hearts—our desires. But if we have a strangle–hold on them, we close ourselves off to God redirecting and guiding us to the good things—the better things—He wants to lead us to. Sadly, some people deny the interests, gifts, talents, and passions that God put inside of them because they think they’re supposed to “deny themselves.” What happens is that they keep dismissing God every time He tries to work through their desires because they assume their desires aren’t from Him. [LIVE]How do you think about your desires? Do you see them as things you need to crucify? Or do you just follow them wherever they lead without talking to God about them? Avoid both extremes. Don’t write off everything you want as ungodly. But don’t give your desires a blank check in your life either. Ask God to help you recognize the desires that don’t come from Him and to plant the ones that do more deeply in your heart. [NXT LVL]Read Proverbs 10:24. And listen to Jeremy Camp’s song “Empty Me” from his album Live Unplugged. | 
