I've spent the last few days disgusted with the world. Disgusted at how people, believers and non-believers alike, can be consumed with idols of the heart. Materialism. Pleasure. Entertainment. Food. Fame. Self. More and more lately, I am realizing how corrupted this world really is. Even the true message of the gospel is skewed. Oh, I could go on and on... and that's precisely my problem. Can you call me judgmental? Probably. But God's Word calls this worldly corruption "sin".
I looked through the book of Ecclesiastes. The side-notes say that "all of life is meaningless, useless, hollow, futile and vain if it is not rightly related to God. Only when based on God and his word is life worthwhile." Humanistic wisdom is meaningless. Pleasures are meaningless. Work apart from God is meaningless. Achievement without God's blessing is meaningless. Advancement is meaningless. Money is meaningless. All this is true, BUT the interesting thing about these passages is that the author wasn't looking only at everybody else. He was evaluating his own heart.
Second Corinthians 13:5 reminds me: "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." Yes, discernment is good, BUT have I been examining others instead of myself? I need to stop looking horizontally. Instead, I need to assess my heart only, looking vertically, so that I may live a purposeful, meaningful life centered on God.
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