Passions and Desires

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)
Do Not Love the World
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.

Jesus stated the greatest commandment as this, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And although it is easy to agree that this is the greatest commandment, living it out is not so easy. We all seem to struggle with the love of the world taking the place of our love for God.

The desires of the flesh can be hidden in plain sight, like the blue-collar worker wanting vacation time with his family, the business man that desires power and prestige, the soccer mom that desires a better social status for her kids, the preacher that desires adoration from his flock, the single mom that desires a good dad for her kids, or the divorcee that just wants to feel love again. Yet in all these situations, if we are not careful, we will compromise our love for God to obtain the love of the world. This comes from the indoctrination of the world on the definition of happiness and fulfillment.

Worldly thought: “Happiness and success is my ability to fulfill all my passions and desires.” But what if we were to begin to think differently and set God as the affection of our heart. Your new thought would be something like this: “I find everlasting joy through my love relationship with God as we fulfill his passions and desires for my life.”

The greatest happiness and fulfillment of your life will come as you love God with all your heart and trust God with all your life.