Evil Desires

Posted by Janet McMillan on Jul 28, 2011 in Daily Bread | 3 comments

We had grandboys visiting from North Dakota last week. Our energy reserves and patience are not at the same levels that they were when we were full time parents. Some other things that went unnoticed back then have a glaring effect on us now. One thing is how quickly the innocence that is so precious in the young ones can be suddenly offset by a 3 lb. weight being hurled off the second floor down onto an unsuspecting chair arm that could have easily been someone’s head. The look in the young offender’s eyes said “who did that?” and “it needed throwing!” at the same time. It seems as though his position was that it wasn’t his choice to throw or not to throw the weight, the choice had been made when he was born and he had no control of the impulse. If you ask him, he would eventually inform you that had the weight not been in such a tempting place, (inside the bedside table) it probably wouldn’t have happened so it is our fault. We are all like this in a way. We believe that God has tempted us by putting that something within our reach when in fact it was our “evil desire” that has dragged us into temptation. We look at the little ones with a sense of superiority. We would never do such a silly thing. If we are honest with ourselves, we struggle just as mightily as the children with temptation. The only difference is that we have adult temptations. And instead of damage to a wooden chair arm, the potential for damage is infinitely greater. Damage to our families, our relationships, our livelihoods and most heartbreaking – damage to our relationship with God.

Often these “evil desires” don’t seem wrong at all at the outset and its only in hindsight, after things have gone very wrong and the terrible, inevitable price is being paid, that we can identify where we began to step away from the path that we now see so clearly was the right one. It was the same in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent persuaded Eve that (no matter what God had told them), that she surely wouldn’t die if she ate of the forbidden fruit – she would merely gain the knowledge of good and evil. How bad could that be, right? Who could it possibly have hurt?
This powerful tendency for us to follow what seems right to us was embedded in Adam and Eve even before the fall of mankind. It is an essential part of our human nature. For this reason, we can’t trust our own instincts – we have to pray, pray, pray every day for our own will to line up with His, and that He will guide us away from those actions that will cause harm and toward those that are beneficial for us and pleasing to Him. Fortunately, our God is very, very good at Resurrection, and nothing and no one can get so far away that we are unreachable by His great hand and His redemptive power. When we repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us and bring us back into relationship with Him. How amazing.