What's wrong with loving the world?
1st John 2:15 "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. To know "why" we are not to love the world we just need to read on through the next couple verses. Verse 16 of the same passage goes on to say: "for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." In my own life I have had the obvious seasons of living out of harmony with God and knew I wasn't living right. What about now though? Friends, even after we confess our sins and make Jesus the Lord of our life we still need to tend to the garden of our soul. What does that look like? For me it means coming before my Lord in prayer and asking him to search my heart. Asking Him to purify my heart and to cleanse me from unrighteousness. The sins that entangle me need to be untangled so they don't choke out the miracle working power of God in my life. Friends, we must never grow complacent or too tolerant of our own sins. Even if they seem to be harmless little thoughts, attitudes, etc. We must confess them with a broken and contrite heart, and turn away from them with the power of God. I don't know about you, but I have lived for far too long quenching the spirit! I can tell when "Randy" is on the throne and when God is! If I'm on the throne...it isn't pretty and that's when I need to do a quick "Stop Drop and Pray" drill where ever I am and make it right real quick before I leave the house, or go to my next meeting, etc. You see I rely so heavily on the Holy Spirit to be my counselor and prince of peace, that I can sense real quickly if He has left the scene! In the epistles of John we are being exhorted not to fall away into false teachings and to remember that God is light, that we must walk in His radiance and truth...confessing our sins, avoiding the lawless ways of this world. There is a false teaching today that is being taught that we don't need to confess our sins once we are saved. Of course the Devil would love that if a bunch of believers in Christ allowed sins to overtake them and they became so entangled in them that they were choked off from any miracle working power. It can also go the other way... Imagine even the pharisees who wanted so badly to obey all the "letter of the law" ended up not understanding that they were still allowing sin to permeate the garden of their soul. Their sin was "pride of life!" They became so boastful and arrogant for their good deeds and behaviors! Friends, we can be lawless...or follow the law to the letter, and still be completely lost! The only hope in this life is to follow God with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ...as he leads us down the straight and narrow road...heaven bound! Each day as we sit and spend Quiet Moments with Him we choose to put Him first and to follow Him because...He is the Way... Thanks for letting me share. Randy Young
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
Randy YoungQuiet Moments Archives
March 2014
Categories |