Pets
Indulgent wishes

Indulgent wishes

Going back to the 16 day vacation. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I stepped on the scale. I had collected 4 kg! And not only me, almost everyone had learned a lot.

It’s probably not that bad. You usually gain weight when you go on vacation. Then you just have to make sure you drop those extra pounds after the holidays, otherwise you will end up forever in the wrong places. And then it turns into a fight. Simply walking from point A to point B takes your breath away. To stand up now you have to press something. And tie your shoelaces …

Once again, I realize that you have to be on your guard all the time. Because even something nice like camping, unwinding, and enjoying a good meal can turn you around and bite you. It can even get bad enough to affect your health.

I read the verse again: 12 We are shown how to turn our backs on an ungodly and forgiving life, and how to assume a God-filled and God-honoring life. The word “forgiving” jumps out this time. Indulgence can easily push us into a corner, eventually taking a lot out of ourselves and completely out of the way.

This is not a pleasant subject, but we need to talk about it, because indulgence can cause a lot of damage in our lives. Even food can shorten your life. I often lecture my friends about their bad eating habits. Due to their lifestyle, they were eating at the wrong times and that made them fat and look at them now. Food became a fad and is harmful.

But obviously there are other harmful indulgent wishes as well. Pornography shatters the beauty that God gave mankind. Suddenly, the spouse becomes bored, because pornography creates a very skewed image and reduces intimacy to animal activity. It may be bad to put this into words, but the desire to look at increasingly crude and naked images and videos is shattered, crushed, and destroyed.

And we can make this list much longer. Alcohol, money, clothes, car, home, work, status, food, sex and many more. Take a look at each of these. There is nothing wrong with it in itself, but when it becomes an indulgent desire, the positive becomes negative. That’s when it gets destructive.

There is nothing wrong with necessities. These are the things we need to cope with life, and many of them we need to survive. The problem arises when we allow needs to become so ubiquitous that they become wants. We must work hard to satisfy our needs, but we must leave desires alone, because as we have heard a few times now, it is destructive and destroys us and those around us.

Maybe it’s time to go somewhere quiet and make sure that wishes don’t take over our lives. Ask a friend to reflect on this with you, because before you know it, need can turn into desire and destruction awaits just around the corner.

Spirit will help you with this if you want.

Holy Scripture

Titus 2: 11-14

Reflection

How do you understand the difference between needs and wants?

Is there something in your life that tends to turn into desire?

How to get rid of it?

Pray

Sir, there are some things that I just can’t refuse. Please help me to free myself from those things so that You control me and not run after every desire that arises in my heart. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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