CRAVE FOR MORE GRACE!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY APRIL 7, 2020.

SUBJECT: CRAVE FOR MORE GRACE!

Memory verse:  "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4 vs 6.) 

READ:  James 4 vs 5 - 6:

4:5: 5 Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy”?

4:6: But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

INTIMATION:

The dictionary definition of grace is; beauty, kindness, goodwill, mercy, reprieve, and pardon. God's grace will then be His beauty; kindness; goodwill; mercy; reprieve; and pardon for sinful humanity. These attributes of God are freely, and undeservedly given to sinful humanity. Grace therefore, is the free, and unmerited power of God available to sinful humanity to meet our needs without any costs to us. it is received by believing rather than through any human efforts. Everything we are, and do, and have is by the grace of God. You and I are one hundred percent helpless without the grace of God. In Ephesians 2 vs 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”

The simple and uncomplicated nature of God's grace, and being a free gift, make many people to miss it. There is nothing more powerful than grace. In fact, everything in the Bible—salvation, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with God and victory in our daily lives—are based upon the grace of God. Without grace, we are nothing, we have nothing, and can do nothing. If it were not for the grace of God, we would all be miserable and hopeless. 

In the passage we read today, the apostle James reveals that there is so much more to grace. The verses in Amplified Version of the Bible is quite revealing. It says, "Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says. The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcomed] with a jealous love? But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace (continually) to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it)."

Therefore, grace is the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the evil tendency within us. What evil tendency is James referring to here? The evil tendency is to turn away from God and look to our selves or to others, rather than simply asking Him to meet our needs. That is a tendency of the flesh; the evil tendency of being worldly. Incidentally, it is not the way God wants us to react or lead our lives. God demands to reliance on and obedience to Him in all the things we do. Much as He created us as free moral human beings, and allows us a choice, He still demands we choose His ways, and not ours.

The remedy to this evil tendency is found in James 4 verse 6 which tells us that in the midst of all our problems and frustrations, God gives those who humble themselves to ask from Him more and more grace, more and more power of the of the Holy Spirit, to meet or overcome this evil tendency and all others fully. That is why God sets Himself against the proud and haughty who think they can handle things on their own without Him, but gives grace continually to the lowly, to those who are humble enough to receive His grace by simply asking for it.

God wants to help us meet or overcome every evil tendencies within us. He wants to give us His grace. He wants to give us the power to overcome our wrong motives and intentions, if we will be humble enough to ask for it and receive it rather than trying to handle everything ourselves by our own power and in our own way. Hear what the Scripture says about the humble, and the proud; "For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance." (Psalm 138 vs 6.) "Though He scoffs at the scoffers and scorns the scorners, yet He gives His undeserved favor to the low [in rank], the humble, and the afflicted." (Proverbs 3 vs 34 AMP.)

You and I should start each day by saying, "Here I am, Lord, ready for whatever You have for me to do. I empty myself, as much as I know how, to allow Your grace to flow in my life, to cause me to be able to do whatever it is that You desire for me. I cast myself totally upon You. I can be only what You allow me to be, I can have only what You will for me to have, I can do only what You empower me to do, and each victory is to Your glory, not mine."

Prayer, Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of humility and total obedience to You in all things, that I may receive from You more and more grace to live for You, and overcome every evil tendencies that arises in my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

A LOVELESS LIFE IS PURPOSELESS!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY APRIL 6, 2020.

SUBJECT: A LOVELESS LIFE  IS PURPOSELESS! 

Memory verse: 

"

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." (First Corinthians 13 vs 3.)

READ: First Corinthians 13 vs 1 - 8:

13:1: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

13:2: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

13:3: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

13:4: Love suffers long and is kin; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

13:5: does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

13:6: does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

13:7: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8: Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

INTIMATION:

Life without love is purposeless. Love refers to one’s active response to God, as well as his godly relationship with another. One could legally perform the duties of his beliefs after a meritorious manner, and do good work without a heart of love, but he cannot love without doing the works. However, if the good work is not a love response to the grace of God, then it is useless. It is a heart of love that is essential for one to be able to dwell in heaven. 

We are often preoccupied with our own self, and act as if relationships are something to be squeezed into our schedule. We think always that we are doing others favor by loving them. But that is wrong, instead we are doing ourselves the favor of walking in the command of God to fulfill His law. We talk about finding time for our children or making time for people in our lives. That gives the impression that relationships are just part of our lives along with many other tasks. But God says relationships are what life is all about. 

Jesus says that if we truly love God and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the “Ten commandments” of God. Therefore, the best tact to deal with this is, rather than worrying about all we should not do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show love for God and others. After learning to love God, learning to love others is the second purpose of your life. 

Four of the “Ten Commandments” deal with our relationship with God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. All the commandments are relationships based! We might say it is in Old Testament laws, but Jesus summarized what matters most to God in two statements: love God and love people: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22 vs 37 - 40.)

Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life. Busyness is the greatest enemy to relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love—love God and people. Life minus love equals zero.

God, our Creator and Owner, is love, and a source of our love. He loved us enough to sacrifice His Son for us, even when we were neck deep in sin and condemnation. Jesus is our example of what it means to love; everything He did in life and death was supremely loving. God the Father and the Son manifested in us in form of His Holy Spirit, and gives us the power to love; He lives in our heart and make us more and more like Christ. God’s love always involve a choice and an action, and our love should be like His.

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul enumerates the greatness of love over all. He says that love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church today. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle working power have little effects without love. Love makes our actions and gifts useful. Although people have different gifts, love is available by everyone. There are fifteen qualities he explained concerning the nature of love. These are qualities that are manifested in one’s love relationship with another. In this case, this should be the nature of the Christians’ relationship with one another in their behavior as followers of Christ.

Now you know this, why will you allow relationships to get the short end of the stick? When our schedules become overloaded, and overcrowded, we start skimming relationally, cutting back on giving the time, energy, and attention that loving relationships require. What is most important to God is displaced by what's urgent to you. 

Our society confuses Love and lust. Unlike lust, God’s kind of love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is impossible to have this love unless God helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to live a life hinged on Your greatest commandment—to love You and others. Endue me with the spirit of love, that I may lead a life of love worthy of Your calling, in Jesus’ Name I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

HAVE YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY APRIL 5, 2020.

SUBJECT: HAVE YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT!

Memory verse: "One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27 vs 4.)

READ: Luke 10 vs 38 - 42: 

10:38: Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.

10:39: And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 

10:40: But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

10:41: And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

10:42: But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

INTIMATION:

We should have our priorities right, knowing that the spiritual, which controls the physical, should take precedence in all we do. It is good to care for our physical needs. However, the spiritual needs of man are always more important. One must not use the service of physical needs as an excuse to neglect the spiritual food that is more important. It is for this reason that Jesus advised us thus, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6 vs 33.) Our priorities should be determined by what is most important at the time.

To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness means to put God first in your life, making Jesus the Lord and King of your life. He must control every area —your work, play, plans, relationships. You must fill your thoughts with His desires, to take His character for your pattern, and to serve and obey Him in everything. Emphasis here is that we desire that the will of the Father be done on earth in our hearts, as it is in heaven. God’s righteousness comes through one’s submission to His will. Seeking the kingdom of God, therefore, must be always be first. God will take care of those who seek Him first. 

People, objects, goals, and other desires all compete for priority. Any of these can quickly become most important to you, if you don’t actively choose to give God first in every area of your life. Our greatest desire should be to live in the presence of the Lord each day of our lives. Sadly, this is not the greatest desire of many who claim to be believers. Many substitute commitment and obedience to God with busywork in form of Christian services, especially in the church, which, to a large extent, is self-serving—wanting to be seen as workers in His vineyard while their heart is far away from Him.

True life is more than the food the body consumes, it is more than the activities in which one can participate in order to entertain oneself. Faith in God draws one away from the material world in order to trust in God as the provider of all that is necessary for life. The abundant life results in one’s reliance on God as the provider of both physical and spiritual needs (John 10 vs 10). 

Consider Mary and Martha in the passage we read today, on this occasion they were both serving Jesus in their house, the One they both loved. But Martha was very busy with the household chores while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to His teaching. Martha didn't realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting her guest. As at the time Jesus was present in the house, Martha’s priorities were wrong. She was busy doing a needed and good work. However, the situation demanded a change in her priorities because the end of Jesus’ ministry was drawing near. It was a time to listen to Jesus for the last time.. 

Though Martha’s works were good but were not to her best interest. She got so busy that she found it hard to relax and enjoy her guests. Her service to Jesus degenerated into mere busywork that was no longer full of devotion to Him. The personal attention she gave her guests should be more important than the comforts she tried to provide for them. She was overwhelmed by her wrong priority of placing physical needs above spiritual needs. 

Our work for the necessities of life takes second place to that which is above this world. When material things are in their right priority, they become spiritual in the sense that we consider such to be blessings from God. When material blessings are used for the work of God, then they are a blessing to many. The rich man who continually focuses his material blessings toward the propagation of the gospel is a blessing to the kingdom of God. 

What is really important to you? Is the kingdom only one of your many concerns, or is it central to all you do? Are you holding back any areas of your life from God’s control? As Lord and Creator, He wants to help provide what you need as well as guide how you use what He provides. Only in seeking first the kingdom of God can one maintain the correct priorities of the Christian life. It is when one places God first in all things that God takes care of the one in all ways. 

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace to adequately prioritize my needs, placing You and my spiritual needs first in my life, that I may serve the interest of Your kingdom first, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

NOT CALLED TO SEEK HIM IN VAIN!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY APRIL 4, 2020.

SUBJECT: NOT CALLED TO SEEK HIM IN VAIN!

Memory verse: "I have spoken in secret, in dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, seek me in vain; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." (Isaiah 45 vs 19.)

READ: Jeremiah 29 vs 11 - 13:

29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

29:12: Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

29:13: And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

INTIMATION:

God is the Creator, and is present in His creation. He is close to every one of us. But He is not trapped in His creation—He is transcendent. This means that God is sovereign and in control, while at the same time He is close and personal. God owns all things, and according to His wise plan, He predetermines a future for all His creation. Consequently, He urges His people to call upon Him in confidence. His children need not despair because they have God’s presence, the privilege of prayer, and God’s grace. If we seek Him wholeheartedly, He will be found. 

God knows the future; He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46 vs 10). And His plans for us are good and full of hope. As long as God, who knows the future, provides our agenda and goes with us as we fulfill His mission, we can have boundless hope. This does not mean that we will be spared pain, suffering or hardship, but that God will see us through to a glorious conclusion. We are encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task he has given and who will be with us all the way. God is that kind of leader. 

God is love, and loves us greatly. He so loved us that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to the world as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus came, took the form of man, suffered all things, and died the death we ought to have died for our sins. What an awesome sacrifice—One given His life for another, exchanging what is of immeasurable value with what is completely worthless—our sinful lives!

The apostle Paul, in Romans 8 vs 32 and 35, clearly asks rhetorically; “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”.....”Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?...” He answered the questions, saying; “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8 vs 37 - 39).

Therefore, if God gave His only begotten Son for you, He isn’t going to hold back anything that you require to live for Him. If Christ gave His life for you, He isn’t going to turn around to condemn or abandon you. Neither a strange land, sorrow, persecution, nor physical problems can break our fellowship with God. If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our sinful and worthless condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do do for us? Certainly nothing!

Never despair to seek Him. His promises are public, and their fulfillment is sure. Don’t ever doubt Him. We never have to be uncertain when we have a God of truth and righteousness. In times of dire circumstances, it may appear as though God has forgotten you, but God may be preparing you for a new beginning with Him at the center.

Prayer: Abba Father, Your love for me and for the whole world is unparalleled. I cannot thank You enough for all You have done for me. O Lord, I know Your good thoughts for me, endue me with the spirit of absolute trust You, obeying You in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

BREAKFAST BY THE SEASIDE
Life's Punchlines... (Volume 3).
❤🇳🇬🇳🇬 Year 2020🇳🇬🇳🇬❤.

Preacher: Priest Godsknight O.J

Topic:  ...Grace To Do This!

Text: Luke 14v13-14" But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the Just."

I suppose at every point in this life, everyone is trying not to be confused 🤦🏻‍♂. The generous ones wants to be sure that those benefitting are not complacent with just receiving, & that their poverty is not borne by laziness.

By and large, a call to cast your bread 🍞 upon the waters 🚿🌊, is for those who can exercise at least mustard seed faith (Eccl 11v1-2).

God blesses the seeds of the sowers, because the number of the eaters has increased. Learn to justify God's blessings, harvests is not by power💪 (Gen 8v22, Prov 11v24-25).

Naturally, there is no way you'll throw a party & the poor won't eat crumbs. The humble service boys & girls must taste your meals🍲🍛🍗🍴🥘🍾🍸🍹, no matter how stingy you're😜 (Luke 12v15-21).

A little dash of waters🌧, makes the mighty ocean 🌊. Our widow's mite is capable of not making the financial oceans of those impotent folks👨‍🦽😵 stagnant (Prov 3v27-28 ).

We're charged to be greases on rusting metals🤕, let's strive to do the needful always (1 Cor 3v6). Extending invites to the poor, lame, maimed, lame, for free feast shouldn't be "THE BIG ISSUE" 🌝.

Be grateful you're not in that class (Prov 21v13), don't mock the unfortunate😵👨‍🦯👩‍🦼. We're all created in love & with equality, we're only lucky to control the resources we couldn't have created in our lifetime (Prov 14v31).

A feast is a special gift-meal that delights & nourishes the soul🍍, not necessarily a three course meal🥘. If giving bags of cold pant water (Pure Waters) weekly is what you can afford, that's wise🤓. May God teach us all in Jesus Name🙏.

God bless you🤝.
Instagram: @PriestGodsknight.

FAITH WORKING THROUGH LOVE!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY APRIL 3, 2020.

SUBJECT: FAITH WORKING THROUGH LOVE!

Memory verse:  "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love." (Galatians 5 vs 6.) 

READ:  James 2 vs 14 - 26:

2:14: What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not  have works? Can faith save him?
2:15: If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
2:16: and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body; what doth it profit?
2:17: Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
2:18: But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
2:19: You believe that there is one God; you do well. Even the devils believe—and tremble!
2:20: But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

INTIMATION:

We become Christians through God’s unmerited grace, not as the result of any effort, ability, intelligent choice, or act of service on our part. However, out of gratitude for this free gift, we will seek to help and serve others with kindness, love, and gentleness, and not merely to please ourselves. We are saved by faith, not by deeds. But love for others and for God, is the response of those whom God has forgiven. God’s forgiveness is complete, and Jesus said that those who are forgiven much love much (Luke 7 vs 47). Because faith expresses itself through love, you can check your love for others as a way to monitor your faith.

The characteristics of an effective Christian in any age is work produced by faith, labor prompted by love and endurance inspired by hope. As Christians, our calling from God is to become like Christ (Romans 8 vs 29). To be worthy of this calling means to want to do what is right and good (as Christ would). Christians have been created anew in Christ by obedience to the gospel (Romans 6 vs 4 - 5). Since they are recreated in Christ, they respond with good works of thanksgiving. They have been so created, not by good works, but for good works. Such actions show that our commitment to God is real. Deeds of loving service are not a substitute for, but rather a verification of, our faith in Christ.

Faith is the foundation and content of God’s message, hope is the attitude and focus, Love is the action. Therefore, your faith is put into action through love. Love involves unselfish service to others. When faith and hope are in place, you are free to love completely because you understand how God loves. While it is true that our good deeds can never earn salvation, true faith always results in a changed life and good deeds. Love endures forever (First Corinthians 13 vs 13). Love is the greatest of all human qualities and is an attribute of God Himself (First John 4 vs 8). Does your faith fully express itself in loving others? 

Your faith should be carried into action with an obedient response to the grace of God.  (Second Corinthians 4 vs 15). Your faith should move you into action. In your relationship with one another you should be moved into action to care for one another. God’s intention is that our salvation will result in acts of service. We are not saved merely for our own benefit, but to benefit others in our faith works through love, serve Christ and build up the church. Christians thus work in response to what God has done for them (First Corinthians 15 vs 10). It is their works that manifest their response to the grace of God. 

Though good works are not a qualification of the saving grace of God, rather it is a manifestation of the obedient and faithful response to the free gift of grace. What is required of a Christian is a faith that works through love. This is the obedient faith that responds to the grace of God. One’s recognition of his salvation by the free gift of grace motivates one to work out of love and thanksgiving. When one trusts in God for his or her salvation by grace, he or she will lovingly respond in obedience to God with a better relationship with his or her fellow human. 

The work referred to in this context, is not specifically the keeping the commandments of law. For this reason, one must not confuse the works of faith that James discusses with the works of law about which Paul speaks about in both Romans and Galatians. Reference here is to good deeds toward one’s fellow human. Such deeds are the manifestation of one’s faith. Therefore, one’s faith must be manifested by his or her benevolent actions toward others. If one claims to have faith in God, and yet does not manifest such in the behavior of his or her life, then such faith is of no profit toward salvation. Faith without benevolent actions is self-deception on the part of the one who seeks to please God on his own conditions. 

When someone claims to have faith, what he or she may have is intellectual assent—agreement with a set of Christian teachings—and as such it would be incomplete faith. True faith transforms our conduct as well as our thoughts. If your life remains unchanged, you don’t truly believe the truths you claim to believe. Though works are not meritorious conditions upon which one will be judged, but they are indications of thankful response to God for His grace. However, final judgement by Christ will be based on our deeds because our deeds proclaim what sort of heart is within us.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for your saving grace bestowed on us in Christ. My faith is in You. Engrace me to manifest my faith working through love for You and others, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

SPIRITUAL ADULTERY!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY APRIL 2, 2020.

SUBJECT: SPIRITUAL ADULTERY!

Memory verse:  "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (First John 2 vs 15.) 

READ:  James 4 vs 4 - 6:

4:4: Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
4:5: Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy”?
4:6: But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

INTIMATION:

Idolatry, outward or inward, is spiritual adultery—breaking our commitment to God in order to love something else. Turning from the worship of the true God to worshiping idols is idolatry. This can be either inward or outward. When one is not heartily committed to the worship of God, and is attracted to worldliness, it is spiritual adultery. Jesus described the people of His day as adulterous, even though they were religiously strict because their hearts were far away from total commitment to the worship of the true God. Inwardly and outwardly they had idols they are committed to, and even worshipped other gods. 

As believers and members of the body of Christ—the church—we are the ‘wife’ (or bride) of Christ (Revelation 19 vs 7), and by faith, we can be clothed in His righteousness. Anything outside the total commitment to Him is spiritual adultery. The materialist is an adulterer in that he or she has wedded himself or herself as a member of the body of Christ to that which is of this world. Such person has broken the covenant made with Christ in order to give himself or herself to the world. Friendship with the world is enmity with God: If one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in his heart (First John 2 vs 15). Those who love activities and possessions of this world do not love the Father, for they are obsessed with the things of this world. 

Some people think that worldliness is limited to external behavior—the people we associate with, the places we go, the activities we enjoy. Worldliness is also internal because it begins in the heart and is characterized by three attitudes: (1) lust of the flesh—preoccupation with gratifying physical desires; (2) lust of the eyes—covering and accumulating things, bowing to Godon materialism; (3) pride of life—obsession with one’s status or importance. When the serpent tempted Eve (Genesis3 vs 6), he tempted her in these areas. Also, when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, these were his three areas of attack.

It is unnatural for one to live a spiritually adulterous life. God created us to seek Him, not the world (Genesis 1 vs 26). Therefore, the spirit that lusts after the things of this world in order to ignore God had degenerated to the point of allowing Satan to control his desires. It is obvious that one cannot love God with the love with which God seeks to be loved, and at the same time, engage himself or herself in the pleasures of this world. However, those who have been consumed with the things of the world have taken their minds off that which is to come. And that which is to come is the destruction of all that for which one had worked in this world (Second Peter 3 vs 10).

God has blessed some believers with money and other possessions. They are wealthy because God has given them power to get it, and they should not allow their wealth to take the first place in their lives other than God. Avoiding spiritual adultery does not mean that the rich must forsake their riches, for many rich people have the gift of making money for the benefit of the work of the church. Though the rich are not obligated to give themselves into poverty, but they must not be obsessed by their wealth, and should be willing to share with others in need. 

Believers are not to attach themselves to the thinking of the world in a way that they are diverted from keeping their minds on those things that above. They must not be directed in their lives by the evil values and morals that are maintained by those deceived by Satan. It is impossible for one to love God with the intensity of love by which God demands that we serve Him, and at the same time, compromise his values and morals by living after the world. 

God extends His grace toward those that have humbly submitted to Him (See Romans 5 vs 20). Those who are arrogant will not submit their lives to the will of God. They resist submission, and thus, God resists giving His grace to them in order that they might be saved. God values self-control, a spirit of generosity, and commitment to humble service. It is possible to give the impression of avoiding worldly pleasures while still harboring worldly attitudes at one’s heart. It is also possible, like Jesus, to love sinners and spend time with them while maintaining a commitment to the values of God’s kingdom. Let nothing take away the first place of God in your life.

Prayer: Abba Father, in You I live, move and have my being. Nothing will ever take the first place in my life other than You. O Lord, give me the grace to forever keep my total commitment and obedience to You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!