Devo Post #5

8/18/14

2 Timothy 2:22

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart

Flee youthful desires. I wonder if the youthful desires back in the 1st century are similar or the same as the desires in the 21st century. Who am I kidding. What are the youthful desires now? Relationships? Respect? Prosperity? Indulgence? Entitlement? Do I need to break these down for myself?

I myself have been tempted and idolatrized these desires. I want a relationship. I want a marriage. I want to find someone I can walk with for the rest of my life and serve God and family and church together. I want that. That is something that God has ordained and is beautiful and represents the Bridegroom and Bride. This is a reflection of God’s covenant and God’s love and God’s restoration before the fall. But it can become an idol, and when it does we create a crown and throne above God’s.

I also want respect. Respect in the christian community as a leader and a servant. When I do this, I get my rewards on earth and not in heaven. I will be pursuing my own glory. This applies also in the academic or scientific community. This also applies in the “real world.” We all want acceptance and human praise for our accomplishments and gifts. We all want that. It is part of our selfish and sinful and wicked nature.

Then there is prosperity. Does God give us prosperity? Sometimes. Some more than others, as in accordance to His will. Most of us are called to be poor though, as we are to give more than we receive, and basic math tells us that we will end up with less than we had before if this algorithm is looped multiple times, even if there are times of bountiful materialistic blessings from God. But prosperity is not to be expected from God, and it is definitely not something to be idolatrized. Health? God can at any moment give us cancer, which does not differentiate between healthy and unhealthy people. God can give financial hardship at any time. Natural disasters or accidents can occur. But God does promise persecution and suffering for His children, to discipline them and mold them and have them bear the purest olive oil possible. We suffer because Christ suffer, and so we will also share in His glory at the end of the age, the Day of the Lord.

Indulgence is just idolizing the pleasures that God has created on Earth for us to enjoy, as well as following Satan’s world’s example of how we should be living. This form of living is wrought in self-idolatry and selfish thoughts, uncaring and just plain evil. Think about Noah’s time. Think about Tower of Babel. Think about Sodom and Gomorrah. We may be close in our World’s wickedness to those period of history, and you can bet God is angry.

Entitlement is our pride. We believe we have unlimited potential and the authority of gods. “The world revolves around me,” we say. We are the “me” generation right now. We are the “yuppies” right now. We are collectively in the pursuit of our own happiness. That is the pride that led to our downfall since the beginning, as well as Lucifer’s. Why do we walk in our father’s shoes? Like father like offspring I guess. It is the acceptance that we are weak and wicked and deserve eternal punishment that we can begin to understand Jesus’s love and sacrifice on the cross. It is only then can we understand and seek God’s love and God’s kingdom. 

Guess I do need to explain these things to myself.

I guess this is what Tim Keller says when he talks about how the young people put hope into worldly things. We have so much hope and faith in our future that when tragedy strikes or God uses RNG on us and our plans and dreams bottom out, we are left disillusioned and depressed. That is why God calls us to find others of pure heart, to seek accountability and discipleship and a living example of God’s will in the lives of His people. We are to pursue not our own happiness, but the righteousness of God.