ARE YOU DISCOURAGED AND IN NEED OF ENCOURAGEMENT?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves
the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in
world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world
and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
(1 John 2:15-17)

MEDITATION:
In a world that seemingly has gone mad, wouldn’t it be nice to hear
something encouraging? The scriptures provide us with great news!
What great news? If we do the will of God, we will live forever!

Think about what that means – living forever starts with right now,
doesn’t it? Certainly, it means that we will live eternally whenever we
pass through death, but it also means that we can enjoy life while we
are living now.

The scriptures imply that doing the will of God starts with loving Him.
We are not to love Him along with everything else; we are to love Him
more than anything else. If we love the things of the world, then we are
diluting our love for Him. We can love the world, or we can love God,
but according to His Word, we can’t love both.

We are even given some measurements to determine if our love has been
misdirected toward the world. Love for the world means we are following
the lust of our flesh and eyes. When we do that, our back is turned toward
God because we are looking toward the world – it has our attention.

When pride arises and influences the things we do, we forget that God is the
One who has given us everything we have (skills, talents, spiritual gifts, etc.).
Pride in doing a good job and performing at our best is admirable but the
scriptures are referring to an arrogant pride (driven by egotism).

When we have an arrogant pride, we are becoming independent and don’t
feel a need for the Lord. We incorrectly assume that we can do just fine
without Him. Some are also misguided in their thinking and develop the
idea that they will ‘help God’ by handling some things on their own. That
is flawed thinking. God doesn’t need our help in the least. What He wants
is our dependence, not our independence.

ACTION:
Questions to consider:
    – Do I want to start ‘living forever’ right now?
    – Do I want to start enjoying life even during times of turmoil?

If we follow the instructions from God’s Word and love Him more
than we do the world, we will have a desire to do His will. This new
desire changes everything for us. And we benefit because when we
do God’s will, we are told that we will ‘live forever’!

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, forgive me if I have too much love for the world.
Forgive me if I have too much pride and am ruled by the lust for
worldly things. I want all my love to be directed toward You, so I
can start enjoying life now and look forward to an eternal life in
Your presence. Thank You for always loving me with a love that
can’t be duplicated by anyone in this world! Teach me how to let
Your love flow through me.”

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