God wants us to be happy, but God wants us to be happy in Him not in the things that fill our life. In some ways, I envy the people that live in undeveloped countries. It seems that there is far less in their world to distract them from a relationship with God while where we live there is TV, cell phones, cars, jobs, clothes, and many more things that I probably can't even think of.
Of course, it's naïve to think that the distractions are all related to my environment. James himself lived in a time that was far less developed than ours and he is writing to an audience that deals with the same issues of distraction. It's not the environment. There will always be something that catches our eye and tugs at our focus. It's a human problem.
Our only choice then, is to either choose to focus on God and request His help in maintaining a proper focus or to allow ourselves to be distracted by bright, shiny things. "Grieve, mourn and wail." God would rather that we did this than enjoy the moments of sin that tempt us. Of course, when we do this, and we turn from the sin, God fills us with joy anyway, so it's not a losing proposition.
No comments:
Post a Comment