No Giving In

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
NO GIVING IN
Prov 1:10
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.
NIV
This is only the beginning of a rather long dissertation of the method, or the ways of the world in which a person can become entangled which only leads to destruction. I do think this speaks directly to the fact I have the free will to allow the world to entice me, or the free will to resist that enticement, that temptation even when it is presented directly by Satan himself. Although it would seem when reading the rest of which follows the ways of sinners, or the way of the world might well provide such abundance of stuff, even if taken from others against their will. Ill-gotten gain seems such a harsh way of putting it. Yet the way of the world may well be all about that kind of gain. The whole purpose of advertising is to entice me out of what money I may have and make them richer and me poorer. The production of so much useless things provides only a distraction from the real purpose of life. If I am enticed into the desire for more and more things, hoarding until I have not the space for all of it, my attention to the reality of truth may well be distorted by the abundance of all those temporal things. I have the choice to throw in my will with the ways of the world, or I have the choice to throw in my will with the ways of God. I choose God. I choose to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. It is without question I surely have quite a bit of that worldly stuff too. But that is only because he has seen to it I have some creature comforts to make my life here as he desires it to be. But I was not enticed by them, nor do I hold them in great regard, for they are only temporal. Sure I enjoy them, I gain some pleasure from having them around me, but that is because God has deemed it so. I think it would be easy to be enticed by the ways of the world if I did not know better. But I just cannot understand how anyone who has the knowledge of God, and has experienced his salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit in their life could ever be enticed by the things and ways of the world. Yet I think maybe that this can and does happen and that is why this warning is in place. The distraction of material gain is a powerful one; it lures people with such subtleness it is almost invisible. The evil one even uses some of God’s word to allow believers to think this is God’s way, but it is a trap, and I will not be trapped. My senses are too kern as for the Holy Spirit is on guard and I have been dressed in the armor of my God. Both my mind and my body are protected from those flaming arrows in the form of enticements. No matter how there are disguised, they still serve the purpose of the evil one bent on my destruction. My will is mine to will, and I will not give in.