Where is Your Affection?

Colossians 3:2,

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

One day, a little girl, whom we shall call Maria, spied a bright shiny rock in the bottom of an empty vase. She reached her hand into the vase and grasped the shiny rock. However, as she tried to pull out the rock, she realized that her hand was stuck, and that it would not come out of the vase.

Maria cried out for her mama and papa to come help her get her hand unstuck. Her parents told her if she wanted her hand to come out, she must first let go of the rock. Maria refused to let go of her “precious” rock and continued to grasp it firmly. For hours, her parents tried to reason with her to let go of the rock. Finally, Maria’s hand grew so tired that she dropped the rock. After she pulled her hand out of the vase, her father turned the vase upside down and out slid the rock.

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A Desire

Most of us probably read this story and think what a foolish little girl Maria was. But many of us are just like Maria. We often hold onto senseless things that don’t really matter. Many times we imprudently set our hearts on something that is not God’s will for us and refuse to let go. Sometimes it may not be something that is necessarily bad. But we have allowed it to take first place in our hearts over our relationship with God.

It is not always that God wants to take something from us. It is more about Him wanting to be foremost in our hearts and desires. Sometimes once He has first place in our hearts, He will give us back what He took from us. But more often than not, He just wants to bless us with something even better than we had before. These blessings may not always come in the form that we expect or desire, but we can rest assured that He always has our best interest at heart.

Psalm 37:4,

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

It is only when our delight is found in the Lord that we find true fulfillment. God longs to be the One who ultimately quenches and satisfies all of our deepest desires.

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A  Deferred Hope

Abraham and Sarah waited many long years for God to give them the son that He had promised. At one point, they even took matters into their own hands, which proved to be a disaster. This is what generally happens when we don’t wait for the proper timing of God’s will.

At last, God blessed them with the promised son. Isaac was loved and cherished by both his parents. There is nothing like the joy of a child after a couple has faced the trial of infertility for many years. Facing this battle in our own lives, we know of the hopeful expectancy of one day holding our own child in our arms.

Proverbs 13:12,

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

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A Deliverance

After finally blessing them with a son, God decides to test Abraham yet again. God asked him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Ultimately, God was not interested in the life of Isaac. God merely wanted to prove the affections of Abraham. This story was also a foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Genesis 22:1-2,

“It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

Abraham was obedient to the Lord and trusted His plan. Abraham loved his son, but he loved God more. In the end, God did not require the life of Isaac but provided a substitutionary sacrifice of a ram.

Genesis 22:8,13,

“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together…And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” 

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Is there something in your life that is holding your affections in place of the Lord?

Holding on to things in our lives that are not God’s will, keeps us from living Spirit-filled Christian lives. 

Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Set your affection on things above…” (3:2). The word affection here actually means mind. The Lord wants to be the center of our every thought and action.

May we say with the Psalmist:

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Psalm 73:25

 

 

 

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