Thoughts for the Day

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures... Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

‘God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.’

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Christians can sell out to the world - the hostile, unchristian, anti-God world - and not even know we're doing it. It occurs every time we let the desire for things overpower our Christian judgement, and it starts when we are very young. "I want" becomes the phrase we use, rather than "I need". The last might be something pressing like food for a diabetic, whereas the former might be simply desire for a cream cake! As one theologian says "This is the stuff wars are made of!" It happens when one country says "I want that extra piece of land, or that country."

So how do we know we are asking for the right things? says we must draw near to God, and cleanse our hearts. I have spent a lot of my life saying to children and grandchildren "Have you washed your hands?" after they have been to the bathroom, and during Covid-19 we were all taught exactly how to wash our hands properly, and for how long. It took a lot of water and soap to do it properly.

Cleansing our souls is something similar. We need to open up to God and examine ourselves - daily, if possible - to think back over the day and review each action and activity. It's like examining our hands to see if they're dirty! Look at the dirt - at the mistakes and the selfishness and confess them to God. Allow His Holy Spirit to clean every particle of the mess that is us until we stand purified and clean before Him.

Father-God,
help us to examine our
desires and motives,
to see when they become unworthy of You.
May we be honest with ourselves
when 'wants' are seen as 'needs'.
Teach us how to cleanse our souls
and with the help of Your Holy Spirit,
to draw us closer to You this day.
Amen.