Thursday 28 Aug 2014

August 28: 1 John 2:15-17

Key Verse: 1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

Devotion:
It is good to enjoy life and all that God gives us in our lives. Celebrating what God has supplied to and for us is not a sin. God would not have given the earth back to us after the flood if He did not want us to enjoy it and tend to it! But what happens when we start to fixate on the things of the earth? What happens when we start to get consumed by what we see rather than what God would have us to look for? We get lost!

If we focus on the lust of our flesh then that is what we will start living for; our lives will become centred on that lust and those wanton feelings. How can we expect to be able to concentrate on anything else when we are focused on something like lusting after another? If we go down that road we will not see the love that comes from deep within other people and we will not be able to have a meaningful relationship with anyone, all we will see is that lust and nothing else. To fulfil that lust we will start to do wicked things and try more and more to get some sort of satisfaction. It is like a drug and should not be abused!

If we focus on the things that look good we will find fools gold! I can remember searching as a young child in the bush behind our houses for those rocks that glistened in the sun; this was fools gold and had very little to do with actual gold! When we focus on things like that we will be the ones rushing out to find the next glistening stone and will lose focus on the real gold in our lives; the love of God!

When we focus on what we have built up, the treasures that we have gained, then those treasures will be our focus in life. We will go out of our way to build up those treasures and lose track on the important things in life. Our eyes are the things which will affect us the most in our lives because they are like cameras taking pictures constantly and storing those images in our heads. God gave us our Bibles so that we would be able to read them and get to know Him better. Use what God has given you to do more with and for Him and you will see the greatest treasure in life!

Points to Ponder:
What do you focus on?

What do you like looking at?