Enticed away

I suppose one of the difficulties of following an invisible God is that it’s so easy to get pulled away from him by the visible.

We get pulled away by our hobbies. We get pulled away by our girlfriend or boyfriend. We get pulled away by our pursuit of money and things.

And the thing is, it’s so easy to do, because these things are right in front of our eyes.

We can see them, we can touch them, we can find instant gratification in these things.

Not to say that these things are bad in themselves. They’re not.

But it’s very easy to let them take the place of our pursuit of God in our lives.

God knew that. So he told the Israelites,

Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. (Deuteronomy 11:16)

For the Israelites, this meant the Baals and other gods that the surrounding people followed.

For most people today, it’s the god of money. Or the god of power. Or the god of sex.

And so often we see people who get enticed away from their relationship with God by these things.

Even in the time of the apostles, this happened.

Paul once wrote about a man named Demas,

Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. (2 Timothy 4:10)

Demas had once been a fellow worker with Paul in his ministry (Colossians 4:14; Philippians 1:24).

But somewhere along the line, Demas got enticed away.

Perhaps it was money.

Perhaps it was the pursuit of things.

We don’t know, but it led to him abandoning Paul, and even worse (so Paul implies), abandoning God.

And the same thing can happen to us if we’re not careful. So Moses told the Israelites,

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18–21)

In other words, keep God at the very center of your heart, soul, and mind.

Wherever you are, wherever you go, whatever you do, remember to make God the center of your life. And teach your children to do the same.

In so doing, it helps prevent us and our children from being enticed away from God by what the world offers.

What are you pursuing? Who are you pursuing?

Are your thoughts focused solely on the things of this world?

Or are they focused first and foremost on the one who created this world?

As John wrote,

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)