June 24, 2024 -- Proverbs 24:1-2 -- Christians facing envy and desire
/Be not envious of evil men,
nor desire to be with them,
2 for their hearts devise violence,
and their lips talk of trouble.
Proverbs 24:1-2 ESV
What is the source of temptation in your life? What whispers to you so that you are inclined to consider actions which normally you’d run from? These two verses reveal how easily a man falls into the clutches of temptation which morphs into wicked actions.
Who are you envious of? Who in your life do you imagine “has it all-together”? So often Christians are looking at non-Christians and admiring their homes, or their finances, or their beauty, or their talents, or their business acumen—you can name all kinds of things which after you've considered their possessions or attributes, creates in you a discontentment.
Desire kicks in. Having uncovered an attribute or a possession of others, you begin to malign others. Or you actively begin to want something which previously had not been on your radar or part of your array of desires. Sin, when it takes hold of a man, grows. It can find a place for its roots in almost any kind of soil. The whole point of the advertisement industry is to whip up in you an urgent need for the things you are seeing. First the commercials stir up within you a sense of "hey, I like that" or "I want that", or "if I had that then..." Second, the commercials direct you acquire more. The idea planted in you germinates.
Jesus calls out to those who would desire Him: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 ESV). Understand, a person will follow Jesus when, having considered His life, His intimacy with the Father, His Spirit-led power, He longs to have what Jesus has. In all the world, this is the only proper place for envy. When a heart becomes discontent with its lot and sees Jesus and finds in Him one’s all-in-all, then desire—appropriate desire--kicks in.
To follow Jesus one denies all other envies, all other attractions, all other things. Jesus is the heart’s desire and for Him the souls longs. Therefore, denying oneself is accomplished with the vigor of a starving man who sees a table groaning under the weight of food that no one is touching. You’ll do anything to get at it. Jesus is our soul’s banquet.
Cross-bearing for the Christian is the next logical step. When Jesus knew His hour had come, He set His face towards Jerusalem and went to the very place where He knew He’d be betrayed, tried, suffer, and finally be crucified (Luke 9:51). Jesus modeled what He preached. The height of love and devotion for Him was to lay down His life in obedience to His Father’s plan of electing love. The height of Jesus’ love was to deny Himself, His human wishes and desires, and ever more fully press into the Father’s plan that His is the death that redeems all from their sinfulness ways and presents them clean to the Father.
In the same way, we as believers know the denying of our own flesh, putting to death our wants and selfish desires will result in others being brought to the Father. It is the way of the cross. When Christians prove themselves delighted in Jesus and content to follow Him, they are irresistibly attractive to the people around them. A believer who is pressing towards the height of love and greatest devotion to God is a rare commodity and one who is undeniably compelling to the compromised, used and depleted people around him. It is Jesus Who is the great magnet in His life.
Faithful Father, Who knows how to give all good and perfect gifts to His children, forgive us for the many times we have run from the gift of all Your blessings and churlishly folded our arms against Your mercies. Forgive us for ways in which we have envied the wicked and defied Your lovingkindness. With eyes filled with the vision of Jesus and hearts aware of His intimacy with You and the passion aroused within us by Your Spirit, lead us once again to denying ourselves so that Christ will increase and we decrease. In the light of Jesus magnificence may the things of this world be relegated to the junk heaps and burn piles for which they are destined. Oh Jesus, be our vision and our heart’s strongest desire. Spirit of God, awaken our conscience so that we will deny all things that would interfere with our life's greatest desire, Jesus, and so become ever more faithful followers of Jesus to the glory and praise of God our Father. Amen.
https://youtu.be/WZBOSfiH8Rk?si=waPX3NEWz3KxkD-u “Be Thou My Vision”
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