the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
Click to donate today!
Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 1 John 2:17. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. 1 Peter 1:24-25.
The lust of the world tears many from Christ and His Word, because they do not believe that Christ can give greater pleasures to them that love Him than the world can offer them. They regard the union and fellowship with Jesus as the saddest thing in the world, an austerity in which there can not be one hour of real happiness. But how these blind people deceive themselves! They do not know that "the fulness of joy" is in His presence, and "pleasures" at His right hand forevermore (Psalms 16:2). They have no conception of true joy and no taste for the pure pleasure of the heart or they could not regard the lust of the world as joy. The joys of the world are as evanescent and unsatisfactory as the joys of a dream which no longer exist when we awake; they are as soap-bubbles that vanish at a touch. That they who know not the joy in Christ do not seek it, is more pardonable than that you, who have tasted it, depart from it, carried away by the deceitful and passing lust of the world. Therefore, give the world a wide berth, beloved. Do not come near its pleasure circles; but suffer yourself rather to be spoken evil of and to be reproached, as St. Peter says the first Christians were (1 Peter 4:1-4). Let the will of God, that which is pleasing to Christ, be your delight and joy; this delight and joy cannot be taken from you. That which gives you no joy in death, which does not remain with you beyond the grave, do not consider it worthy of being coveted; rather despise it. Let the joy in the Lord be your strength, for that lasts forever.
Lead me to green pastures, lead me
By the true and living way,
Shield me from each strong temptation
That might draw my heart astray;
And if e’er my feet should turn,
For each error let me mourn.