Walk With the Lord

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
(James 4:4)
Meditation

Does God really want me to hate the world? After all, he created it. There are a bazillion beautiful places around the world that are extremely hard not to fall in love with. I personally love the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. I love the drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway. I love the Gulf coast beaches in Florida. Does God want me to hate them especially if I want to protect them from litter and pollution?
Of course, God’s not just talking about the ecology of planet earth with this warning. He’s talking about everything concerning the material world we live in. It’s all a matter of degrees. If I love anything more than I love God, then I make God my enemy. Like I said before, he created the world. It would be foolish for me to love the creation more than the creator. Every beautiful corner of this world cannot hold a candle to the beauty of God’s love. Likewise, people, governments, the leaders, even our country, should not be loved on the same level as God.
It’s the same with the good works you do for the church. If you love being so busy with “church work” that you fail to give your first priority to God, then God is your enemy. If you’re justifying your busyness by thinking that if you’re doing God’s work, you are putting him first. Mostly, you are so busy you very rarely even take time to talk to God. It’s important for all of us to remember, we’re not saved by our works, we’re saved by faith in Jesus, so we need to always put him first in our lives. Not just on Sundays, but everyday we wake up and take a breath.
This world is full of things that tempt us away from following Jesus. Even things like good deeds. There are countless numbers of worldly things to interfere with our relationship with God. The time is now to decide if we want to be an enemy of God or his friend! If we go after the gods of this world that cause us to be distracted from him, we are, in essence, committing adultery. God the Son paid a horrible price for our salvation and he is a jealous God. So, if you are chasing money, prestige, power, drugs and alcohol or sexual gratification you have an enemy you don't want!




Daily Prayer

Dear God in heaven, everything about you is so much above anything we can ever hope to understand. You are at the pinnacle of the mountain that we are trying to climb. You know what our thoughts will be before we even think them. You discern when there is truth or deception, goodness or evil in our thoughts. You know what resides in the dark recesses of our hearts. Fill us with your Spirit to keep us on a righteous path. You are our councilor and guide. Thank you for never leading us astray. We are tested every day by the temptations of the world. Cleanse us of any wickedness that you find in our hearts. We need your forgiveness when we fail those tests and we thank you for your blessings when we pass them. We love you, Lord, and want to always be a living sacrifice to bring glory to you. Help us to be more like Jesus, whose sacrifice brought salvation to us all. It’s in his name, we pray. Amen!

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