"Letting Go Of Worldly Desires"

By: Zach Wood

1 John 2:17

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

 

 

In 1 John 2:15-17, we read that we are not to love the world.  You'd probably agree with that and say, "Well, yeah.....of course I'm not supposed to love the world".  However, how many of us are holding on to desires each day that will one day fade away?  I step back and think about what the world has offered me throughout my life and I realize that I followed a lot of worldly desires.  We all have and still do.  Jesus knew how hard it was and would be for Children of God to stray from worldly desires.  We are often told, "Be in the world, but not of it".  As an old Petra song states, "We are strangers, we are aliens, we are not of this world".  That is well put! 

 

This past Sunday, our pastor has a very challenging sermon talking about how the world has influenced our lives, as Christians, and how hard it is for people in the world to see a difference between us and the world.  If we want people to be changed and brought to Christ, the world must see us straying from worldly desires and staying steadfast to the path of God.  This is so much easier said than done, but we are all guilty of making excuses as to why we don't follow Christ more closely. 

 

Whatever it is that we are following in the world, we must put it behind us and focus on Christ.  This is not to say that we are not allowed to have anything of possessions whatsoever.  We can have possessions and things of importance to us, but when we take our focus off Christ and put it on worldly things, our walk with Christ becomes stale and stagnant.  I've been there many times and I'm sure many of you have as well. 

 

As this passage states, we must follow and do the will of God to live forever.  If we follow the world and its desires, we'll always be going from one desire to another.  We simply cannot live this way and be spiritually healthy!  We must keep our focus and desire on Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever! 

 

I'm reminded of the passage in Colossians 4:5, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity".  When we follow worldly desires, we miss opportunities to share Christ with others who are seeking to find meaning in life.  We are also missing opportunities for our own spiritual growth and falling more in love with our Savior. 

 

We must either decide to follow worldly desires or follow Christ.  We cannot have both.  My prayer is that we will all choose to follow our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ.  We need to make that our prayer each day as we struggle through the decisions of our daily lives.  And let us remember, "the man who does the will of God lives forever".