I want it all and i want it now - catchy lyrics, not so good for the spiritual life

To become more like Jesus in our Character, we have to feed the fruit of the Spirit in our lives but we also have to weed out sin.  One of the important things we have to get better at is dealing with temptation - because temptation comes to all of us.  Here are some verses from James 1 that deal with this issue:

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Sometimes we don't necessarily think that verses 16-18 are connected with verses 13-15.  However they are closely related. 

The nature of desires that lead to evil are that they present themselves as the most important thing in our lives at that moment and that we need to take action now to fulfil them.  When you reflect on your own experience of desires that lead to evil, you will probably also be able to identify that they push God out of the picture.

That is where verses 16-17 come in.  Desires try to deceive us into thinking that we need to take action independent of God for our own happiness/fulfilment.  However the deeper and more lasting truth is that God is our Father, He knows what we need and we can rely on Him for every good and perfect gift.  This is the solid unshifting foundation on which to build our lives

So next time you are faced with an evil desire that tries to push God out of the picture, remind yourself that God your heavenly Father has something better for you than what the evil desire is trying to convince you to get by your own action independent of God.


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