Where is Your Heart?

by Emily
from Virtuous Daughters, July 2011~Volume 11, Number 4

There is a drastic difference between the ways of the world and the teachings of the Bible. While the world promotes rebellion, independence, and disrespect for authority, the Bible teaches submission and honor. While pride and “me first” attitudes are common in the world, the Bible way is to humbly prefer others before ourselves. The list could go on—in music, dress, attitude, yes—in every area of life—God’s ways, and the world’s, are in opposition.

1 John 2:15–17 presents the key to what our relationship, as Christians, should be to the world: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” It’s simple, and it comes down to a matter of the heart. Do you truly love God, and long to please Him, or do you love the world? James 4:4 speaks strongly when it tells us, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” If we love God, we’ll want to obey Him and live our lives in accordance to His Word . . . and that is what will cause us to be different from the world!
   
It is important to remember that the things that we think about can affect what we love. There are a few areas in particular which we should be careful about. What do we read? If the books, magazines, catalogs, etc. that we read are full of worldliness, it will affect us. What about friends? Our friends should be those who will encourage  us in the Lord, rather than draw us away from Him. (That doesn’t mean we can’t reach out to the lost, in trying to witness to them.) What we listen to, or watch, will also have an influence in our lives. Think about what Romans 12:1–2  says: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Being transformed by the renewing of our minds goes right along with not being conformed to the world! As we spend time reading the Bible and praying, our minds—and our hearts—will become more focused on the Lord!
   
God has a purpose for us to be different from the world. We aren’t to blend in with it, but rather, God wants us to be a light and a testimony to those around us. Titus 2:11–14 says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Another passage is John 17:15–18, where Jesus was praying for His disciples and for all who would be saved. It says, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” If God had wanted to, He could have taken each of us to heaven as soon as we were born again. But He didn’t—we are in this world to be witnesses for the Lord!
   
As we’ve seen, loving God and living for Him will not leave room for us to be friends of the world. This will mean that the world won’t understand or approve of some things we do and the choices we make. We’ll need to “stand alone” at times. Keep in mind that the important thing is not pleasing the world, but pleasing God! The prophets of the Bible provide us an example in this area. In declaring God’s Word and living as He told them to, they experienced rejection and persecution. Their message of repentance and turning back to God was not popular, yet they faithfully obeyed God regardless of the cost.
   
A.W. Tozer wrote of being “other-worldly”: focused not on the things of this world, but on that which is eternal. Of these people, the other-worldly, he writes, “Their smiling indifference to the world’s attractions and their steady resistance to its temptations have been misunderstood by shallow thinkers and attributed to an unsocial spirit and a lack of love for mankind. What the world failed to see was that these peculiar men and women were beholding a city invisible, they were walking day by day in the light of another and eternal kingdom. They were already tasting the powers of the world to come and enjoying afar the triumph of Christ and the glories of the new creation.”
   
The passage we looked at earlier from 1 John also reminds us that the world won’t last forever—it is going to pass away! Let us spend our lives serving the Lord, focused on what will last for eternity. Remember Moses, who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:25–26) In the Bible, Egypt is often a picture of the world. Moses could have had great wealth, a powerful position, or widespread fame. Yet he forsook earthly pleasure to follow God’s will, realizing that greater reward was in store. Like Moses, may we be willing to wholly follow the Lord, leaving the things of the world behind!