Gospel Spice | Awaken Delight in God through faith in Jesus Christ What is distracting me from God today?
Will we dare to diagnose our distractions? This heavy topic is on our mind today as we ponder the lessons from the Book of Proverbs about priorities, and distractions.
Stephanie introduces us this week to a new fictitious character, who constantly seeks to maintain herself in a state of numbing and escape from the real world. And so, we look at the ever-increasing numbing that comes from seeking pleasure or relief in the wrong places, so predominant in our culture today. We talk about misplaced loves: we are wired for joy and pleasure and delight, but we need to beware of seeking these in the wrong places, even the “innocent” ones. God is the only safe place for us—in everything, including our delight and joy and pleasure.
Make sure to check out the optional-but-oh-so-helpful mini e-book to go along with the series at gospelspice.com/wisdom
The author of the Book of Proverbs suffered from an acute case of escapism. King Solomon was addicted to women, and to wine (see Proverbs 31:1-9). He learned the lesson, but too late-- from 1Kings 11 to the entire book of Ecclesiastes, Scripture attests to the failure of the world's wisest man to choose delight in God at the twilight of his royal life. Solomon stopped delighting in God’s glory and started delighting in his own.
Does this mean that our own desire to delight in God, and to escape escapism, is a doomed quest? Not so! Because we have access to the wisdom that is from above the sun--the very wisdom of God through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, in the name of Christ. We have what Solomon never had.
Disclaimer – pleasure itself is not a bad thing. We are wired for pleasure and joy and delight. But beware where you seek it! Jesus loved pleasure and joy and delight, and role-models how to place these desires rightly: squarely in the lap of our heavenly Father, on our knees.
The questions we are challenged to answer this week: Would we rather garner praise from humans for our own works, or praise from God for our dependence on Him? Would we rather build our own little kingdom, bound in time and space under our own wisdom, and be its ruler for a season -- or be part of the larger, infinite, eternal Kingdom of God with the place of honor of a child?
Jesus opened the way of wisdom on the cross by surrendering to the Father, and invites us into the same. His passion was the climax of a life of resisting the temptation to delight in Self-glory. For example, the wilderness temptations were all attempts at distractions from His mission. And, so was Gethsemane: it was the final battle for resolve, the culmination of a lifetime of battles against sin and temptation.
Jesus did what we could not do: a life of perfect surrender to God (which is perfect freedom) so that He could give us that freedom through the Cross.
Freedom from sin;
Freedom from Self;
Freedom to surrender to the Son.
Why would we want to be our own master, when Christ offers to be the master we could never be for ourselves?
What the world needs most right now is our personal intimacy with God. Only then will we be truly equipped to reach the world in His Name. So, Stephanie ends this highly personal episode with several of her own personal tips and experiences of trusting God. They include:
- Early morning routine;
- Prayer;
- Bible study, intake, memorization (raking for leaves and digging for diamonds both);
- Discipline;
- Worship.
Are we PERFECT? NO. But the general direction is a growth in our moment-by-moment dependence on God by His Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s the spirit of the Book of Proverbs. Don’t give up. Trust God, not yourself.
Make sure to check out the optional-but-oh-so-helpful mini e-book to go along with the series at gospelspice.com/proverbs
MEET OUR FICTIONAL GUEST TODAY | LIZ
Lizzie loves a good shopping spree. She finds peace in the endless rhythm of browsing the racks, and trying things on, and spending hours in search of the one perfect item she is looking for. She usually does not know what she needs until she finds it, but then, she knows. She jokes that Target has a memory erasing device at the entrance of their stores—she comes in for milk, and leaves with 3 trendy pillows, a pretty dress, and a new kitchen gadget. And then she has to send her husband to the store after work because she forgot the milk. Oh, her husband. He’s a good man.
Lizzie loves to spend hours on social media. She’s been known to let dinner to burn, or forget to get it started, because she was down a rabbit hole on Twitter. Good thing she can order takeout at the click of a button. Her husband is very supportive.
Her favorite evenings are spent with a glass of wine—or two—watching her favorite shows. Yes, she has been known to binge watch. She just can’t resist the pull of a good story. She loves to bury herself in the comforting world of make-believe characters and their fascinating stories, especially easy romance. Her own life is dull and humdrum—nothing like those exciting adventures. Married, kids out of the house, not much to report. Well, on the surface at least. She doesn’t really want to think about the long evenings her husband has to work to provide for them. All this stress is exhausting.
Lizzie loves the little cocoon she has woven for herself—all those well-deserved, innocent comforts to escape reality. She remembers a time in life when it seemed like she could handle a lot more—more stress, more activities, more relationships. Maybe it’s just part of aging. That’s why Lizzie loves to take naps: there is nothing like the feel of drifting away from reality to embrace the sweet comfort of sleep.
She just decided to quit her job as a part-time administrative clerk; it is just too much pressure. Yes, it is going to put financial stress on her hard-working husband, but her wellbeing is important, right? He keeps telling her that God will give her purpose and passion. That sounds like too much work. She’s not interested. She’d rather stay home and get some rest.
Distractions build a smoke and mirror kingdom that will take us away from God’s calling on our lives. Because we are wired for joy and hope and faith, we need to see the danger of distractions, even “innocent” ones. Accumulated distractions will build for us a small world of delusion and fantasy. Lizzie is seeking refuge in her little make-believe bubble of comforts. This small escape world only exists in her mind. It is the sum of her misplaced loves.
The Book of Proverbs teaches us that wisdom is placing our love in God Himself. No less, no more. God invites us to live out the fullness of our identity in Him. Lizzie is too distracted to care about identity, calling and purpose. She has numbed herself into the comfortable oblivion of manifold distractions.
So, unlike Lizzie, let’s dare to diagnose our distractions. Let’s dare to refuse self-deception and self-numbing. Let’s seek to cultivate the root of our hope, our faith, our joy in God Himself. Let’s be ruthlessly honest and see distractions as they really are in our own heart, even when comfort beckons. Especially when comfort beckons. And let’s dare to ask ourselves: what if God was using our uncomfortable circumstances to personally mentor us into deeper intimacy with Him? Would it make difficult seasons worth it?
We have a choice. Our circumstances can distract us away from genuine faith, hope and joy, or they can draw us closer to God. We cannot grow closer to God while building our own little kingdom through self-numbing and worldly comforts. Instead, God invites us to join His bold and ambitious work to build His larger, infinite, eternal Kingdom.
To accomplish our purpose in this life, we need to be laser-focused on God’s calling over us, and shun the worldly distractions. What the world needs most right now is our personal intimacy with God. Only then will we be truly equipped to reach the world in His Name.
Take a listen to Gospel Spice Podcast Episode 390 to find out many more ways that our world aims to distract us from God today.
Make sure to check out the optional-but-oh-so-helpful mini e-book to go along with the series at gospelspice.com/wisdom
We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.
Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog
Identity in the battle | Ephesians
https://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/
Malachi: Messenger to Messiah
https://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/
Wisdom from the Book of Proverbs
https://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/
Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebrated
https://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/
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