While you are right in saying we should throw out every last speck of selfish ambition, that does not mean our dreams and desires are to be thrown out. God gives us great promises and His passion is in our delight of Him. He tells us in Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” As we come to learn who God is and have a great friendship with Him, our desires meld with His. It is these great desires that drive our lives.

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”-Eph. 2:3 We are to root out these desires, you are absolutely right. Yet every thing we do is done to fulfill our desires. Either we don’t serve someone because we are lazy or annoyed with them and we comply with those desires to refrain. Or we may serve them because we genuinely desire to help them or we desire to look good or to obtain their favor or to serve God. We always have a reason for doing something. We may really want to do something but refrain out of our desire to escape punishment. You have a desire to root out your desires which is itself a desire.

You have a great desire to serve God. You also have desires that must be rooted out. This is the battle of the Christian life: a battle of desires.

“Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul.” ~1 Peter 2:11
“Eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.”~1 Corinthians 12:31 He goes on to describe the nature of love.
“The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.” ~Prov. 11:23

Knowing that we act according to what we want to do God gave us promises of Heaven and being with Him for an eternity. They enable us to desire God and His way of life when we see what He has done. He tells us to “set you hearts on things above” (Col. 3:1). In Philippians 3:20-4:1 we see their effect. “But our citizenship is in Heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”

Sorry if I misinterpretted what you said, but I thank you for reading this far.

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One question for you, if I may: Are all of your friends on the same level as you spiritually? Do all of your friends have the same amount of maturity that you do? I certainly would not think so. As for me, I have friends who are older and wiser than me, and I have friends that are younger and need more guidance than me. I’m quite sure that this is the case for most of us.

So, my thought is – by calling an older and wiser person a “friend”, am I bringing them down to my level spiritually and in terms of maturity? Of course not. That isn’t the definition of “friend”. Just because you are someone’s friend, that doesn’t mean that they are on your level with everything, and it doesn’t mean that you are BRINGING THEM DOWN to your level.

By calling God your friend, you aren’t bringing him down to your sinful level. If you think that the Lord your God can be brought down in such a way by mere human thoughts and words, you are sadly mistaken. No, you aren’t bringing God down to your level by calling him your friend – and quite frankly, I don’t see the problem with it.

In the Bible God has called himself our friend:

Proverbs 18:24: A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (The writer is speaking of Jesus here)

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Luke 5:20: When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

I could post on and on passages where Jesus is reffering to his People as his friend. It’s more than just a greeting – he genuinely loved the people He came to serve, even his enemies. So why not call him friend? I’m sorry, but I simply don’t see the harm. We need to face Jesus with respect – but if you call him “friend” as a term of trust and respect, what is the big deal?

On a different subject entirely – When you write your posts, would you please support your claims with Scripture? I am having trouble with the fact that very few of your posts are, in fact, backed up with Scripture.

this is like, the best thing you’ve ever said.