To complete our redo for godliness, we need to take our focus off earthly things. This daily devotion looks at switching our focus back to God.
Nuggets
- We need to stop committing sins and switch to following God’s laws and commandments.
- We need to switch our focus away from desiring worldly possession to focus on God.
- We need to switch our focus to where God is working and help there.
- We need to switch to rely on God’s provision, so we don’t have to put a wrong focus on earthly things.
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Devotions in the On Things Above series
This is going to be interesting. We are going through Beveridge’s sermon entitled Setting the Affections on Things Above.
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We are still in Section 4, These Affections Are Not to be Set on Things upon Earth. Beveridge wanted us to apply what he had been telling us.
My problem is Beveridge only referenced one verse. So, let’s dig around and see if we can flesh out his instructions.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
When we look up the definition of affection in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it says, “the state of being affected.” Affect means “to act on and cause a change in (someone or something).”
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Note: the purple headings are going to be Beveridge’s words.
How Sin Hath Debased and Infatuated Mankind
“And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person’” (Mk. 7: 20-23 ESV)
We need to stop committing sins and switch to following God’s laws and commandments.
Jesus was ending a discussion with the Pharisees in these verses. He was trying to tell the Pharisees that we can’t just make it a surface religion.
Our faith has to lead to a relationship with God. A relationship with God has to lead to a change in our character.
We just talked about how the Pharisees taught that all they needed for salvation was to be children of Abraham. God had made a covenant with Abraham. They thought that punched their ticket.
And in the past, that had been enough. But Jesus changed all of that. The covenant is now with Jesus, not Abraham.
God designed only one way to salvation. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
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Jesus was trying to get the people out of the ceremonial traditions and into looking at what was inside them. He was leading them to look at their character.
There is a section in the Expository Discourses sermon that explains why the ceremonies don’t work. It was written, “That mere outward observances cannot affect the moral nature, seems a very simple truth. Reason teaches it. The body may be affected by them, but not the soul; to influence the heart, means of a right class must be selected. Experience teaches it. Observation confirms it.”
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We would say that character change has to get down to the heart level. That is the original source of our relationships with God.
It has to be the original source because the heart is from where sin comes. Swinnock called it the holding area for sin before it gets revealed.
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That means that outward acts have to come from the inward faith.
We have to get the redo for godliness change down to the heart level. No, that is not easy.
Apparently, the Expository Outline writers thought the disciples were kicking back at what Jesus said. They wrote, “In their ignorance we see the effect, not merely of inattention, but of prejudice and bigotry.”
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Boardman brought up an excellent point. We think that environment determines who we will be.
Environment does influence who we turn out to be. However, the choices are always ours.
It is part of our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
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God is not a dictator. He allows us to choose whether we will follow Him or not. He hasn’t coded our DNA with what that decision will be. We choose.
See the Follies of Covetous Worldlings
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3: 5 ESV)
We need to switch our focus away from desiring worldly possession to focus on God.
Covetousness is an inordinate greed for wealth and possessions. We over value it.
Chamfort expanded the definition beyond wealth. He wrote, “Covetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honour and feeding on selfishness.”
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Herbert took it even further. He felt anything out of wack with God’s Will was covetousness.
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Why is this a sin? It means we are loving the world and its things more than we should. We are loving them more than we love God.
Beveridge — and Paul — contended that covetousness was idolatry. An idol is an object of worship in any form that is below God that takes from God the worship that is His due and is needy and dependent on its worshipers.
The list that Beveridge gave fits in well with his Setting the Affections on Things Above sermon. He cautioned that the focus of covetousness is on earthly things. Our thoughts and desires elevate this world over our relationships with God.
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I can see that. If we put that much stock in our wealth and possessions, it generally has stolen our worship from God.
As Robinson said, we make wealth omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. We make it destroy Grace and piety.
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I think a good way of switching our affections back to God is seeing covetousness for what it is. Arnot called it an indulgence. It is a self-gratification where we lack moderation. It becomes a luxury and a tolerance.
[In my most sarcastic voice possible] No. I never talk about those things, do I?
Moderation equals sobriety. Tolerance has slipped into the worldview definition of love in the attempt to get “… love your neighbor as yourself” to mean disciples have to allow sin to be accepted.
Glossary
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Think about it. We are trying to find our satisfaction through things that are not of God.
We switch our affections back to things above by focusing on God and what He has decreed to be right and holy. We don’t focus on the worldview agenda.
See the Easiness of Charity
“The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Mt. 10: 41-42 ESV)
We need to switch our focus to where God is working and help there.
Woo how! Beveridge included a verse.
When we think of the word prophet, we think of the person who receives a divine revelation to mankind through the Holy Spirit of a future event.
Brierley made an interesting statement. He noted that “… the word prophet merges into our word preacher.”
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Don’t be thinking we are off the hook. Remember job duty #4 in our disciple’s job description?
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
Yep. That means us, too.
Brierley did put a qualification on it, though. We have to be living a godly life, and God has to have given us a special message.
(I know. Doesn’t that put it right back to prophet?).
Preacher, prophet, disciple — whatever word we want to use to describe us — doesn’t change how we should receive someone else who is a true prophet. We are to humbly and without prejudice receive the person God has chosen to impart His message.
The focus of this passage is on the reward for receiving God’s messenger. “The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward” (Mt. 10: 41 ESV).
Melvill reminds us what we probably already know. He wrote, “By our works shall be decided the degree of our future reward.”
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The reward God gives us depends on our actions — not just our knowledge or thoughts. It is based on what we do with what we know.
It is based on what we do for Him.
Ooo, baby. It is so easy to say why we can’t be a prophet, preacher, or missionary. True, a lot of times we base it on our skill set or temperament.
But Beveridge called this charity. Charity means showing others love flavored with acts of benevolence.
This passage says we can receive the reward by supporting someone who does the work. We take our focus off what we can or can’t do and put it on where God is already working.
Then we get the reward like we were actually doing the work.
Why? That is explained by the cup of cold water. Giving someone a drink can be seen as a little act.
Unless the person is dying of thirst. Then giving them a drink of water is saving their lives.
Isn’t that what God is calling us to do? We are to give someone a drink of Living Water (Jn. 4: 14; Jn. 7: 38) so that their eternal life may be saved.
We get caught up sometimes in the expectation that we have to do something big. It has to impact a lot of people. It has to be totally out of our norm and comfort zone.
No, it doesn’t. We can be encouragers. We can see individual needs. We can give the little things.
Don’t worry. God will multiply it.
What Little Cause Men Have to be Troubled for the Want of Such Things
Or Others to be Proud of Having Them
We need to switch to rely on God’s provision, so we don’t have to put a wrong focus on earthly things.
We don’t have to focus on the earthly possessions and riches. God is going to provide for His children.
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It is all about putting the proper emphasis on things. God comes first. This world comes a distant second.
Making the Connections
So, if I would have been doing headings, what would they have been?
- Changing Our Sinful Ways
- Changing Our Cravings
- Changing Our Outlook
- Changing Our Focus
We have to change to be like God.
How Do We Apply This?
- We can’t wait to come to God just when we have physical and emotional needs. We need to come to God as Sovereign God first. The praise and worship have to come before the laundry list of requests. We have to come frequently.
- We can’t write our sins off as the product of our environment or just how we were wired. We have to choose to follow God’s laws and commandments or to sin.
- We need to avoid covetousness. Our focus must be on God and eternal life rather than this life.
- We should work on lowering our vanity and up our humility. We do that by praying and meditating on His Word.
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It is really important that we have the right focus. We have to be focused on God. How do we do that?
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Father God. You are Sovereign God. You deserve our praise and worship. Forgive us when we get so self-centered that we put our focus on things of this world. Change us, Lord, so that we are living in Your Will. Amen.
What do you think?
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