Proverbs 31 OBS I am Loved: Week 2 - In the World but not of it

1 John 2:15
Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God;

Whew.  What about that?

This is the antithesis of 21st Century Living.  Even in many churches worldly success is celebrated.  

Wendy Blight writes of a commentator who says that world is translated as Kosmos and Satan is the head of the cosmos with Fallen angels and demons as his emissaries and the world of the unsaved as his subjects.

That's how I feel a lot these days.  I almost wonder how it is that we got so far off track and so blind to what's really going on amongst people.  Drug use, suicide, escapism, and all are at top levels because people are trying to escape from the reality of their lives which are empty and unfulfilling.

Throw down the staff of success

A few weeks ago I said I needed to throw down the staff of success.  How funny because our study led me right to what I mean by throwing down the staff of success.

1 John 2:16For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

Wow!

At Wendy's prompting: To Paraphrase Joshua, I asked myself Who will you serve today?  The God of Achievement and Materialism?  

Nope

But as for me and my family we will serve the Lord.

It gets better  the next scripture was 

24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

Hmmm.  A couple weeks ago I lost some money and for the next week or two I would think of the sum I lost and would get so annoyed.  Even though it's been replaced and I'm breaking sales records in my business, I'm still attached to that money because I have such a scarcity approach about money.

There's never enough in my opinion to live my life the way I want which is why I become consumed with making more or spend the majority of my time worrying about money.

What vies for your affection? 

If you ask me what I would rather have: Financial freedom but no husband and kids or Husband and Kids but struggling financially, then I would tell you without hesitation that I would rather have financial freedom and be single to do whatever I want.

It sounds terrible but it's true.  I know and have seen way too many women who struggle financially with a family and it's not romantic.  Most of the time they don't even end up with the husband, their kids are a mess, and the cycle of dysfunction is continued.  To me a life of struggle is not worth it only to end up with absolutely nothing. 

I would rather be able to enjoy my life and have the freedom to do so.

That's one of my  blind spots and I totally recognize that but it just goes to show you that what vies for my affection?

• Money
• Material Items
• Achievements

So that's why it is critical for me to throw down the staff of success and stop focusing so much on material success and achievement.  That incident with the lost money was a good start because as Geneen Roth says: The medicine for the pain is in the pain.  The medicine for scarcity is to lose money.

24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

That we may know him!!