Annie
Scriptures: 1 John 2:16 Genesis 2 Psalm 10 Psalm 81:10 Language is very strange, isn’t it? I’m writing this in English because this is the language that I was brought up speaking. Yet, when we came to New Zealand, we discovered that phrases that had meant one thing in the UK, meant something totally different here in New Zealand. The same words, but different meaning.
So, when we read scripture, inevitably, we put our own interpretation on the words, based on how they are generally used in our culture or society. This word “lust” is one such word that is most often categorised as only referring to carnal lust, whereas it applies to so much more in scripture.
In his first letter, John speaks of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life in conjunction with carnal lust. The insatiable desire for wanting everything we see and of thinking that we know what is best for us, most certainly does not come from our Father God, just as carnal lust does not. Right back in the Garden of Eden, Eve saw that the fruit was good to eat – really? The only way you know that anything tastes good is to taste it. The devil deceived her with words and her eyesight. Then her desire to taste it became too overpowering to resist. That is lust. And it comes from only one source, no matter how it manifests itself. How easily we still fall prey to the deception of the enemy who uses our senses to stir up lust within us; what we see that looks so harmless, what we hear that entices us and draws us into craving wealth and possessions that will never bring us fulfilment.
It is this all consuming lust that then taints our whole way of living. The desire for more things, the latest gadget, the biggest and most expensive fad, blinds us to what God wants us to see and hear. We become so absorbed in our lust that we fail to take any notice of those around us who have so little, the ones our Father God calls the poor and oppressed. The ones He longs for us to reach out to and bring comfort to.
Our only way of overcoming any form of lust is to immerse ourselves in the One Who longs to fill us with what truly is Good. Our Father God yearns for us to fill ourselves with every facet of Himself. He tells us “open your mouth wide and I will fill it”, not I may, but I will. The riches of His Kingdom are ours if only we will reach out to Him in repentance and humility. The fulfilment of being filled with His Love for the poor and oppressed, that will then overflow from us, is worth so much more than anything that the enemy tries to entice us with.
At this moment in time our world is in chaos. A global coronavirus plague is running rife now in many of the most poor countries, as well as a plague of hatred and oppression that is truly shocking being exposed in the hearts of so-called civilised societies. It looks as if our whole world is falling apart. The seemingly indomitable idols that have been built through the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, really do have feet of clay.
Yet, there is Hope and His Name is Jesus. The One and only Saviour of this world won the victory 2000 years ago when He took every sin upon Himself and paid the price that God’s Justice demands. He is our only Hope and Salvation.
Prayer: Abba Father, we cry out to You for this lost world of ours, turn hearts back to Yourself. Pour the oil of Your Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may overflow with Your Love to all who so desperately need You.
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