What's with the world?

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. 1 John 2:15‭-‬16 MSG

One of the first lessons that discipleship teaches you is that you cannot successfully serve/follow two competing interests. God who created us made us like him, able to focus on Him alone while seeking to impact the world around us. Sin came to distort the original plan, and all of God's gifts are given with one end in mind - our eternal redemption.

You cannot successfully follow God and also align with the world. These two are parallel lines, with two different sources, nourishment and end. The two have laid down paths, and once you make up your mind where you want to walk, the consequences of your choice begin to follow you. Your heart was not created to accommodate such inconsistencies; once a kind of love is rooted in you, no other love can come in. You have got to be careful what kind of love is taking root.

It is the way of the world to pursue personal interests; it is the way of God to seek out other people's interests first of all. It is the way of the world to seek personal promotion and self recognition; it is the way of God to promote others, sometimes at your own expense. Both interests are never in the same direction, and whenever you find yourself angry and bothered about other people's advancement or progress, or whenever it appears that your interests don't look like what the Word of God promotes, then you have got to take heed and make corrections.

What is it for you now? What are your priorities? What is holding your heart  down? His time of favour is here.