December Living

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:15-16

It is extremely easy this time of year to get caught up in the things of the world. The month of December perpetuates hectic schedules, fancy parties and the desire for expensive gifts. We actually are walking and moving within a living catalog as we are saturated with the ‘must do’s, the I wants, and the must haves.’ We travel from page to page in living form justifying our purchases and squeezing in our desires. Everything we work so hard for during the year is thrown into the mix creating a ‘pay the piper later’ attitude. The problem is that January rolls around and the catalog is used for fire kindling. The bills roll in after the fact along with our good sense.

There are also ‘December days’ in our spiritual lives which causes us to focus on the worldly things instead of the spiritual things. We replace our love for God with our love for ourselves without even realizing the shift. We place our faith in our own strength and wisdom creating a break in fellowship with God. We build idols without the awareness of what we are constructing. Greed comes in many forms whether it is our time, money or service.

‘The threat to fellowship is anything that causes you to lose your first love for God. Loving money or things more than God will break your fellowship with Him. Your sinful cravings or lust can capture your first love. You can even fall in love with what you have or what you are able to do. When your love is not pure toward God, fellowship with God is broken. Your fellowship with others will then reflect your broken fellowship with God. Greed of any kind is a dangerous threat to fellowship with God.’ Experiencing God, p. 241.

Let us get out of our December thinking, and return to our first love… ‘for He first loved us.’