Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.
Please listen to this post here if that's easier than reading it:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpuxsm8t7gjiau8/Evil%20desires%20and%20the%20pride%20of%20life.mp3
Sometimes, God may need to "reset" you so you don't go and destroy yourself. We are warned against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17) being opposed to having the love of the Father. If you walk in a way that these things can become snares to you and hinder your walk, God will prevent it if you belong to Him. He has many ways to slow you down as you go down a wrong path and one of them is that he will "zero" you out. By that I mean that he will humble you through some circumstances, He will bring you to something you will most definitely call "hitting rock bottom", so that you will remember that you should cling to Him and have Him first in your life and know that he is your "everything." Because the whole world is busy preaching something else to you to remove your focus from Him. That is the world we live in. It is a system that is essentially opposed to God and his ways. Satan is called "the god of this world" who blinds the minds of those who don't believe the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). So, Jesus let his disciples know that they were aliens in this world because they no longer belonged to it or followed its values once they came to belong to Him, and the consequences followed:
John 15:18-19
18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remark that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life spoken of in 1 John 2:15-17 are the same things that made Eve sin:
Genesis 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust/desire of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust/desire of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise* (pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
*The devil had told her "your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) But He left out the part where God said that they will surely die! (And she forgot it, too! And Adam forgot it likewise!)
Genesis 2:16-17
16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.
So, don't think yourself more wise than the first man and woman, because the devil is busy preaching the same thing to all of us, albeit in very different ways than in the garden. But you will be blessed to take some time and look into your life and ask God to reveal to you if there is any area where you are driven by the desires of your flesh, the desires of your eyes and the pride of life.
The pride of life is a quite broad concept and it's tricky, too, because it has so many expressions, yet can remain hidden. It has to do with what you want to be or are proud to be or to do or to have (and keep) in this world. It has to do also with what you want to be known for; it sets you on a course to "gain the whole world" in your own way and lose your soul in the end (Mark 8:35-36). All things that drive you to find "treasures" in them rather then store treasures in heaven that will last forever are fueling the pride of life in you (Matthew 6:19-20). It's my life, my way, etc. It's not humility and submission to God that your life is founded on. But it's standing on a foundation that you have built and that won't stand (that's the bottom line). Because in all things you are not seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
If you were seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then God would also fill you with what you actually need (Matthew 6:33). But instead, you go after the seemingly good deals of the devil for you in this world. So, your focus is on those things you think you need, and your hopes and dreams day in and day out are on them. You are short-sighted necessarily because your focus is on passing things. If your focus were on God, then eternity would be in your heart and you would devote all of your being to being on the way to it. You would walk on that difficult way to eternal life with God's graced working in your life (Matthew 7:13-14, Titus 2:11-14). So, things are out of order in your life just because God does not have first place in your heart. And what it takes is a strong resolve to fix that. Imagine parents working so many hours that their children are neglected. Can they work to fix that when they realize their mistakes? Yes, they can. And the solution may include painful sacrifices. The same goes for fixing things up with God. It only takes a firm commitment to pursue after God his way, no matter the cost!
Are the things you pursue self-centered or God-centered? Are you led to praise God or to praise yourself? Do you tend to draw attention to God and his kingdom or to yourself and your accomplishments? Seek to be sure of those things in your life one way or the other. Make corrections that are needed of strengthen your walk in the direction that's pleasing to God and you will be blessed. Keep your relationship with God pure. Remain unstained from the world (James 1:27). Being saved is also to have escaped the corruption that is in the world because of lust (evil desires) (2 Peter 1:4).
James 1:13-15
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So, the only way Satan gets someone to sin and to be bound in sin is through that person's own evil desires that he or she keeps acting upon, instead of keeping on living in submission to God moment by moment out of a humble heart (emptied of pride) that is ready to obey God out of love. Be careful. Pride is dangerous and pride is deadly. Pride breeds rebellion that got Satan thrown out of heaven where he was an angel at the service of God. So, no one can make it into heaven with rebellion that brings sin as evil desires get acted upon. But submission to God is required to enter heaven. We are called to pass from disobedience to obedience to God, and that's the key to passing from death in sin to the new life in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:1-9, Titus 3:3-7).
Luke 9:23
He said to all, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
John 14:15
If you love me, keep my commandments.
1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 2:4
The one who says, "I have come to know Him," yet doesn't keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
James 4:4-10
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit which he made to dwell in us yearns jealously"? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
May Jesus bless you!
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