Getting in Sync with God

 

This morning my Fitbit stopped working, or sometime yesterday. I use it to hold me accountable to walk 7000 steps a day, but who wants to count them? So I went online to discover that my tracker is no longer syncing with its account. Apparently there is an upgrade that has not been downloaded and the tracker simply quit.

Funny how nearly everything that happens has a spiritual connection. I thought of how needful it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and not rely on my own devices or strength. To do that, I must be in sync with the Lord. That is, if I am resisting God, I cannot resist the devil or temptation at the same time.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

This idea of not being able to serve or yield to God and the enemy at the same time applies also to other things such as money and worldly pleasures.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Luke 16:13)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15–16)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16–17)

This principle not only applies to my relationship with God; it affects every part of life. I cannot pray without guarding against distractions that ruin all conversation with God. I cannot try to figure out problems His way unless my focus is on His way. This matter of yielding to God and making Him the center of my life goes even farther:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:31–33)

Eating and drinking are normal activities of life and yet not to be separated from worship or my witness to God’s glory. In the same line, seeking His glory is connected to pleasing others in an effort to win them to Jesus. Being in sync with God is not only required, it is required no matter what I am doing.

PRAY: Jesus, there are days where my mind is all over the place. To be in sync with You, I need Your Spirit and Your power. Such vivid focus is totally beyond my ability. That is the why for being yielded to You and filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, but it is also the only way to do Your will and live for You. Keep me in sync today. I’m not sure I’ll get that Fitbit working properly, but I know that You can do what needs to be done that I can worship and serve You and others as You want me to.

Love rejects lies . . .

It’s interesting that the OT speaks of the things God hates, but the NT mentions this word only once to describe what God hates. It is in a verse that mentions the deeds of a false group or sect but with no other explanation (see Revelation 2:6).

Instead the NT uses ‘hate’ to describe the attitude of some have toward Christ and His people: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” (Luke 21:17) It also describes the attitude we can have if God is not put first in our lives, and even if He is put first.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13)

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Without using that word, today’s reading implies that God hates worldliness and points to this passage:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

This does not say God hates the world, but that we are not supposed to love it. The Greek words used in these verses and in the well-known verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) are the same words: agape (love) and cosmos (world).

In the longer passage, the problem is not the world but the sinful cravings common to the world, and that we are not to ‘love’ this in the same way that God loved the world and gave Himself for it. Instead, we are to give ourselves and that love to the people of the world, recognizing the difference between the love of God (humble, obedient, sacrificial) and the love popularized in the world (proud, do my own thing, me first).

That false love is not from God, will not last, and has nothing to do with the life of Christ that is in me. These verses do not say that God hates anything, but is a warning to distinguish what I am to ‘love’ and give my life toward. He died to set me free from living from worldly desires, a Greek word for “evil cravings” — and as one in whom Christ lives, that desire is changed so that I want to love what God loves. I just need to recognize what that is!

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. (Colossians 1:13)

The lies that can lead me astray come from Satan, the father of lies and the one who opposes all that is of God. He wants to destroy my faith and lead me away into worldly cravings, but God says, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

PRAY: This devotional ends with, “Praise God that someday Satan and his evil system will be vanquished.” In You, Jesus, this has already happened. Even though the Bible warns that “In later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1) it also says, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:12) My focus is on You, not on what You hate but on what You love. I don’t want to be a Christian who rants about all the evil in the world — Satan does not deserve any free publicity. Instead, I want to honor You by loving You with all my heart and giving my life to love that which You love.

PONDER: I don’t need to study the lies and the negatives to be able to quickly spot and avoid them. Instead, I need to know the truth so well that all that is evil stands out in sharp contrast to the goodness of Jesus Christ.