I Choose Jesus
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:15
I didn’t need a new car. But oh, did I want one! My husband and I had worked hard to pay off my vehicle, then saved enough cash to buy his outright—no more financing for us. We should have been happy.
Yet one ride in my friend’s brand-new SUV triggered my craving. I wanted those shiny tires and super-low mileage, that sunroof and those leather seats.
Then I calculated how long it’d take to save the cash to buy this fantastic new ride, or how it’d feel to have car payments again after swearing them off forever. I forced myself to notice everything my car did have: air bags and ample room for my family. A good engine and a working air conditioner. Heated seats in the winter.
Like that old saying about how the grass is always greener on the other side, I peeled my wandering eyes off my neighbor’s “lawn” and planted them firmly back on mine—and on God.
Besides, why was I getting all googly-eyed over a piece of machinery?
That’s what today’s verse is talking about. It issues Christians a firm warning about keeping our eyes on the Father and not the world.
My craving for a new car was a worldly craving. Eventually, the car will erode and crumble into nothing, as will money, houses, the clothes we put on our bodies—even our bodies themselves.
A hunk of metal designed to get me from Point A to Point B is no match for the Kingdom of Heaven. Sometimes we get confused about what we should set our sights upon. We get influenced by commercials or feel envy when someone’s “something new” looks really, really good.
But we can only love one master, and I’ve made my choice. I choose Jesus.
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministry team. She’s also an author who currently serves as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction, represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.
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Originally published Tuesday, 30 January 2024.
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