Everything You Need

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” 
1 John 2:16 (ESV)

Every business wants you to believe it has exactly what you need. 

Picture two stores opening across the street from each other, with both owners know competition is coming. One hangs a sign reading, “If you need it, we have it.” The next morning, the other owner answers with his own sign: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.”

The world tries to make that kind of argument to you every day. Every commercial, catalog in your mailbox, or vacation photo on Facebook is trying to make you think you’re missing out, and it’s just another version of that store sign. They’re saying they have exactly what you need.

But John says what the world offers doesn’t come from the Father. He calls them “...the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life…” (1 John 2:16, ESV). What do those look like for you?

Desires of the flesh are the second helping you didn’t need but took anyway, the late-night phone time looking at things you shouldn’t be looking at, and the comfort food you reach for instead of dealing with what’s actually bothering you.

Desires of the eyes are wanting more, more, more. That’s the new truck you didn’t plan on buying and can’t afford. It’s flipping through a catalog and suddenly wanting a kitchen, a vacation, or a life that looks just like your neighbor’s.

The pride of life is thinking you know better than God, your spouse, or your boss. It’s the moment you decide the rules apply to everyone else except you.

None of these things come from the Father, and none of them satisfy. Before you open your phone or turn on the TV tonight, ask God what you’re really hungry for. 

The world keeps hanging up new signs. God already has everything you actually need.

Prayer: Father, thank You for the plumb line of Your Word that’s putting me right. Show me where my heart is longing for what the world offers. Forgive me for trying to fill hunger only You can satisfy. Lord, give me a true desire and thirst for righteousness, because I know I’ll be filled. In Jesus’ name, Amen.