Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: GREED (avarice, particularly for wealth and things) (01/22/15)
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TITLE: More Please | Previous Challenge Entry
By JANET JONES
01/29/15 -
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The goodness of God amazes me. As a loving Father, He has truly blessed us with excellent gifts. But did you know, every one of His gifts can be abused by our avarice for either more of the gift He gave or an expectation of more than what He promised?
God gave us the gift of delicious food. Our bodies have taste buds and a sense of smell that cause us great enjoyment as we satisfy our appetites and meet the needs of our bodies. He created a wide range of fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, and an assortment of other edible delights. All food could have tasted virtually the same and still have been nutritious, but He gave us variety in flavors, textures, and aromas. I call that a gift. The gift gets distorted when people get gluttonous. They don’t want to just eat moderately and enjoy this good gift. They want to feast en masse, nibble and gorge without limit. Something designed for good, then becomes a vehicle for obesity, weight related disease, and eating disorders.
He has given us the gift of a Sabbath every week to lay aside work, focus on Him and rest. Our bodies and minds need this, but rest becomes laziness and inability to contribute when people pursue it.
God gave us the gift of sexuality to bring us joy and strengthen our marriages. Time spent enjoying the touch and intimacies of someone to whom we are connected and committed. Laughter and passion in the bedroom shared with our spouse are a gift from God. It gets perverted when people lust for sexual intimacies outside the undefiled marriage bed. Unrestrained sexual intimacy in a society leads to lack of true intimacy, sexual deviation and abuses, loss of sexual identity, loneliness, insecurity, jealousy, and heartbreak.
God gave us the gift of marriage. Marriage is designed to be a place for creating a strong sense of belonging, and for fostering love. It’s a protected place to enjoy passion and intimacy. It’s a stable environment for establishing families and raising children. We get greedy, however, and don’t just want a marriage. We expect a perfect spouse. We want someone to live up to our fantasies and the expectations of our friends and family. Marriage requires commitment and understanding that people are real; they’re not fantasies and they do have faults. It requires a promise to accept another human being in their earthly, un-glorified state. This is the platform upon which a healthy marriage can be built. God’s gift is marriage, but we want perfection in another human or it’s not good enough. We want more than the gift offered; the gift of marriage then becomes the curse of divorce and a shattered family. Children go back and forth between parents and hearts are broken and rebroken as we search for that perfect other person to share our lives with.
God gave us the gift of promises and assurances. God promised unspeakable joy, peace that surpasses understanding, the ability to withstand temptation. We can rest in these promises. He said He would never leave us or forsake us, and He never will. God promises we will not go through the valley of the shadow of death alone, and we won’t. But we are not satisfied with those promises. We don’t want to go through any valley that points to shadows or death, with or without Him. Instead of resting in His strength, we want circumstances that don’t require strength. Instead of trusting in Him, we want a life that doesn’t require us to trust. Longing for this level of ease, that was never promised, leads to bitterness and lack of trust.
God has given us excellent gifts if only they were all appreciated fully. Picture a world where sex stayed in the marriage bed; where you stayed married to one imperfect person and worked things out by God’s grace and strength. Think about conditions where people didn’t suffer from alcoholism, obesity, or laziness. Imagine a world where we learned to trust God in the trials instead of avoiding hardships at all costs. Let’s not be greedy. Let us rejoice in the good things He has provided and be grateful. Let’s appreciate His provision and care for us and not abuse His good gifts.
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I feel it would have been a stronger paper if each one of them could be dealt with separately. Each area is good buy by combining them together some of the power and urgency is lost (and each needs its own power and urgency).
You have included some good thought we all need reminded of at time.
Keep thinking.