“Remember, no one has time to pray; we have to take time from other things that are valuable in order to understand how necessary prayer is. The things that act like thorns and stings in our personal lives will go away instantly when we pray; we won’t feel the smart any more, because we have God’s point of view about them. Prayer means that we get into union with God’s view of other people.”
oswald chambers, Prayer – a holy occupation, p. 97.
Daily Devotionals: Ascent’s Mission – Loving God, Loving People and Impacting Our World. Each day’s devotional will guide us through a scriptural thought based on the mission God has called us to follow.
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Engage the Word: Loving God
Read 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Connect the Heart
In verse 15, the Apostle John uses the Greek word ἀγαπάω, transliterated “agape”, which is the same English word “love” that describes HIS love for US. But we are told not to “agape” the world. What does John mean here by “the world”? Here, the sense of “the world” is the sinful inclinations constituting the values, beliefs and morals that are in rebellion to God’s.
John is saying that loving “the world” is incompatible with loving God.
If we skip ahead a few chapters to 1 John 5:19, John says this: “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
There are often two human responses to this: 1) withdrawal from contact with the world, or 2) becoming so enmeshed in the world that there is no noticeable difference.
However, we are called to be “in but not of” the world – so both of these extreme responses fall short of what God intends for us.
Another meaning of “the world” in the New Testament represents everything that prevents man from loving, and therefore obeying, his Creator. Author David Jackman says, “It is obvious that he (John) is not thinking about ‘things’ in themselves, such as money or possessions, which are morally neutral. Rather he is talking about our personal attitudes towards these things.”
The “desires of the flesh”, the “desires of the eyes”, the “boastful pride of life”… None of these have to do with the actual things of the world (our car, our TV, the XBOX, money, sex – all of which are morally neutral). They DO, however, have to do with our motivations, our intentions, our attitudes… our hearts.
Reflect on the Truth
- As we understand that “loving the world” is incompatible with “loving God”, what does your life say to God about your love for Him?
- What are some of the things “of the world” that you sometimes struggle with? Take a moment to be honest before God and name them. Now, surrender these struggles – these obstacles – to God and lay them at the foot of the cross. Jesus died the death you and I both deserve to pay for and cover the very things that get in the way of our love for God.
- Only God can see the motivations, the intentions, the attitudes of our hearts. Take a moment to ask Him to align your motivations and intentions with His.
Depend on the Spirit
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that these thoughts are pointing to. (For example: you may write down, “Lord, why do I struggle so much with the very things that affect my love for you? I want to love you fully, yet there are some things in my life, that you’re very well aware of, that continue to get in the way.”) The Lord can help us discern the path forward – through His word, His Spirit, His people.
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For Prayer
As you conclude your devotional time, pray that our church would be filled with people who are “in the world, but not of it”, loving God with all of who we are – our motivations, our intentions and our attitudes. With our very lives.
Fasting
Please read the first blog post entitled “Why Fast?” This explains what fasting is and why we follow Jesus in this spiritual discipline as together we seek the heart of God.
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Some parts of our 21 Days devotionals are adapted using various resources on scripture and prayer like The Bible Exposition Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, The New Bible Commentary, Logos Bible Software and other resources.
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