11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
- 1 Peter 2
8 Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.
14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.
- 1 Peter 3
- 1 Peter 2
8 Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.
14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.
- 1 Peter 3
These are reminders of things we easily forget about when we journey on our life of faith. One of the best reminders: To keep away from desires that are selfish or wordly that distract our faith by the peace that is taken away from us everytime we entertain those ungodly desires. What are they? Desires that lead us away from putting GOD first in our lives, like selfish ambition, love for money, strive for fame, and similar ambitions that lead to pride and being on top of others. When we have desires, we have to be careful to evaluate each of them, what is the root motive of those desires? Why do we desire them? For what purpose? We need to search our hearts everyday, why we do what we do... Even when we think it's service to GOD or helping others and ministry. There are good and noble things we may do that we do out of wrong motives, but we don't really know we already have wrong motives because motives are hidden in the secret things of a human heart that only GOD truly knows and we can know when we are revealed of the deeper truths within us.
In order to have godly desires, we need to keep our eyes on JESUS the Messiah, our Savior and LORD, the author and finisher of our faith. HE is the only one who can birth within us desires that are pleasing to GOD. We cannot make up our own godly desires, because human hearts are frail, godly desires only come from GOD, no matter how pure those desires are, only GOD can create right motives within us. Godly desires also lead to harmony with other believers. It doesn't create opposition or strife, but a spirit of unity and harmony. Godly desires also result to compassion and sympathy to others. It creates a spirit of love, tenderheartedness and humility. Having a humble attitude causes us to trust GOD when others hurt or insult us. It will cause us to bless those who have wronged us and this kind of humility is truly a gift from GOD. No human being could ever do this naturally because basic human instinct always want to take vengeance for himself.
Therefore our focus should continually be in GOD and on His word. We should not allow the expectations of others to rule our lives, pleasing men instead of pleasing GOD. When we strive to please GOD, our hearts are free from fear and we are not moved with threats being taunted at us by the enemy but we will be able to freely worship GOD with each day that we live when we live it in accordance to His will. So focus on the only constant and unchangeable Being, set your eyes on JESUS.
