Rejecting Earthly Desires for Something Far More Valuable

You’re just about done for today. Cuz it grabs ahold of you. It takes ahold of you, and it tries to drag you into death. Into what is rank and horrid, yet smells so lovely and appears so satisfying or delicious.

That’s the thing about lies. They’re not true. They spin a web. And the thing about webs–there’s a reason they’re used as an analogy–insects don’t notice until it’s too late a lot of the time. They don’t realize till they’ve gotten stuck.

And, usually, they can’t get out. They’re stuck for good until the spider comes and eats them. Until the evil creeping creature comes and snatches them up and bites into their flesh. By then it’s too late.

Some manage to get out of the web, but not most. The stickiness of it is just too overwhelming most of the time.

The point of bait is for it to look appealing. Its pretense is a piece of prey’s downfall.

Satan works very much like this oftentimes. There’s the tasty little morsel, there’s the chocolate cake sitting out, and it’s something that seems so pleasing. It seems like it would just be the most enjoyable thing in the moment.

And so, the little rodent scurries up to the cheese or peanut butter and starts to take a bite, yet–cold metal slams down and squishes the body. The body is broken and therefore squirms. It writhes in pain. Bait is just a kind of deception. Bait works because:

1. The desire for the bait is too overwhelmingly tempting, and the senses overwhelm so much so that logic and reason is thrown out the window

Or:

2. The potential for harm is unforeseen, or at least partially unforeseen

At least that’s how bait seems to work for humans.

But I’m talking about temptation. About the devil’s attempts to snare us. And what lies within the snares seems so tasty, but as soon as the first bite is bitten, you’re trapped. Darkness falls. You are enclosed, crushed, left empty.

This is nothing new to you though, is it? What’s even the point?

Well, I don’t know if there’s much of a reason to ask me, cuz I don’t think I can really understand why I write certain things at certain times. Besides, of course, the prominent reason for many things: God.

I don’t even really know what to write. What to say. What to speak. I mean, what following do I have? Or of that following, to whom am I to give anything? Or, maybe a better question: who am I to give anything? Unless it is the Words of God and maybe some humble opinion that I wish to be founded on biblical wisdom, what can I give?

And even then, is my “humble opinion” really just something from me? I dare say, “I hope my ‘humble opinion’ never really comes from me.”

I wish to do the will of my Father. That’s what Jesus did.

So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

John 5:19

Jesus also said,

‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

John 4:34

It seems sometimes I may try to explain myself on this blog. I dunno if that’s really it, or if that’s always it. I try to write the truth and what I feel led to write. I try to be honest.

Temptation may tear at you. Plod on like a soldier. Plod on like a wounded and weary soldier, dragging his broken leg through the mud. Plod on like the soldier who is surrounded with gunfire yet keeps his eyes ahead to the place where he was told to take a message. Plod on like the soldier who refuses to give up.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Hebrews 11:24-26

You see, Moses could’ve stayed and enjoyed all kinds of sin. He could have had a lot of fun and did a lot of horrible stuff that made him feel good in the moment. But he didn’t. He chose not to. And why? Because “he was looking to the reward.” He had his focus on something else, on what had far more value.

What has far more value? The Lord Jesus Christ. The God of Angel Armies. The Holy of Holies. The Kingdom of Heaven, eternal rewards, the goodness of God, and the LORD Himself were of far greater importance than anything that Egypt could offer.

Moses rejected the offer of pleasure for something far better, for the reward God gives His children. Moses answered the call of God and did the will of the Father.

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‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.’

Matthew 7:21-27

May we remember the grave words of Jesus and do the will of the Father.

Remember, though, that we are not perfect. The apostle Paul admits that even.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

Blessing to you brothers and sisters. Glory to God Almighty alone, forever and always. Amen.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

All direct verse quotations are taken from the ESV

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This next week, I leave for a missions trip to Miami, Florida to do street preaching and evangelism on the days leading up to the Superbowl and on the day of the Superbowl (we leave the 30th of January). There will be dozens of other preachers of the Gospel there, making up numerous different teams. If you’d be in prayer for us and for the ministry. Pray that God be glorified and that the city of Miami and those in it would repent. Pray that God’s Spirit would fall down on His ambassadors and on the city. May God be honored and glorified. Amen.

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