Sometimes, one of my kids will declare that a particular person is their “favorite person in the world.” I’ve gotta say, it can hurt a little, because I am never the one. Oh, they tell me I am the best mom ever. But the “all-around-favorite-ever” ribbon goes to someone that doesn’t ever take their phone away, so I guess that’s fair.
The passage we are reading this week -1John 2:15-29- makes me wonder if God feels that way when I choose to love the world and the things it offers. How can the one he loves so much (me, or you) place any value at all on things that are at best temporary, and at worst deadly?
I think there are at least two answers.
Maybe I am not spending enough time with my Heavenly Father, so I don’t have his love flowing through me. When that happens, I don’t love the things he loves.
Or maybe I am not aware that I have gradually shifted focus, so that I love things of the world without really being aware of it.
Either way, John gives us the answer. We have know the truth of Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit.
All we need to do is remain in fellowship with Christ. When I spend time reading the Word, praying, deliberately noticing the gifts God has placed in my life and thanking him, filling my spaces with music that honors him and leads me to worship, filling my life with people who point me toward Christ; that is when the attractions of the world look as empty as they are, and there is nothing more beautiful than Jesus.
This is our prayer today- as usual for ourselves as much as for our children- that we would stay close to Jesus, filled with His love so that the deception of the world holds no attraction for us.
prayersformychildren.org 