God’s desire for us is for holiness. But holiness is more than our outward actions. It’s about what’s going on in our hearts. God repeatedly emphasizes the need for us to allow Him to work in our hearts. In the book of James, He gives us two powerful illustrations about how our thinking, part of what’s going on in our heart or inner man, affects our growth in holiness or conversely allows us to give in to sin.

Also, read about how we’re to respond when an enemy falls and the purpose of spiritual gifts.

Today’s Readings:

Song of Solomon 3 & 4
Psalm 104.10-23
Proverbs 24.17-18
1 Corinthians 12.1-31

Fishing, Conception, Holiness & The Heart

Song of Solomon 3 & 4:

Holiness & Our Heart

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases (3.5b).

This verse emphasizes the importance of keeping sexual passions within the boundaries God has laid down. Whether we are married or single, it’s important to set godly standards of purity for ourselves and, if necessary, make ourselves accountable to godly friends.

Oftentimes, we think that means simply not doing anything we see as sinful. But God’s standard is much higher; it is inner and outer holiness. Job said he had made a covenant with his eyes not to gaze at a virgin (Job 31.1).

And Ephesians 5 says:

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks (vv. 3-4, emphasis mine).

There shouldn’t even be a hint of those things in our lives. In fact, we don’t sin outwardly without first having issues in the heart (Prov. 23.7).

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matt.15.18-19).

So the next time you let your eyes and your mind wander somewhere it shouldn’t go, remember you are on a slippery slope. Whatever is going on in our hearts will eventually work its way out in our words and actions. We all tend to think we can play around with sin and can “handle it.” But the sinful thoughts we believe we can handle often end up “handling” us!

Fishing with Temptation

James talks about this in the first chapter of his epistle:

¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

“Tempted” and “drawn away” are hunting and fishing terms. A fisherman uses different bait depending on the kind of fish he wants to catch. He has to know what the fish desires. When we play around with sinful thoughts they create certain desires. Then the devil comes along and dangles the bait. Just like a dumb fish we go for it, are drawn away, and he reels us in!

Conception, Birth, Death

In verse 15, James changes to a birth analogy. It seems God really wants us to understand how this process of sin works!

When a baby is conceived, the fertilized egg must first take root in the mother’s womb. Then her body begins to feed and nurture the baby. After 9 months birth takes place. And as the baby grows, he or she will become a full-grown man or woman.

Thoughts are like little seeds that almost imperceptibly start to grow roots in the womb of the heart. As we continue to play around with them in our minds, even while telling ourselves we would never act on them, we are feeding and nurturing them. And if we don’t repent and change our thinking by replacing those thoughts with God-honoring ones, they will give birth to sin. And when fully grown that sin leads to death, death of a testimony, death of a marriage, death in our relationship with God.

Perhaps that’s why David, who understood all too well the process of sin and its consequences, prayed in Psalm 139:

Today’s Other Readings:

Psalm 104.10-23:

All Good Things by His Hand

10 He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 By them the birds of the heavens have their home;
They sing among the branches.
13 He waters the hills from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
17 Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
And to his labor until the evening.

What an incredible passage! Every good and perfect gift truly does come down from the Father of lights (Jas. 1.17) whether for man or beast!

Proverbs 24.17-18:

When Your Enemy Falls

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him.

1 Corinthians 13 says it this way, “love …does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth …” Our sinful tendency is to be happy when someone who has hurt us gets what we think they deserve. How many of us have said gleefully, “What goes around comes around!” Verses like these should cause us to realize just how much we need His grace. These are things we cannot do on our own. Only the love of Christ working through us can enable us to live a life that pleases Him!

1 Corinthians 12.1-31:

The Body of Christ

What a beautiful illustration of the body of Christ, how we have all been gifted in different ways, and how it all works together just as our physical body with all its organs and parts functions as one.

One key verse to remember:

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (v. 7).

Whatever spiritual gifts we have received (and we all have at least one, Eph. 4.7; Rom. 12.3-8), they are not for our own benefit, but so we can use them to bless others.

Coming Up:

In the coming days, we will talk about tattoos, biblical love, how God intended sex within marriage to be “red hot,” what Paul had in mind when he said, “Let your women keep silent,” and how we can pull sin and judgment down on ourselves.

I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out our YouTube channel.

If this post spoke to you, I would love it if you would share it on your favorite social media platform.

And if you don’t already have a copy, you might want to purchase a copy of my eBook, 10 Benefits of Keeping a Spiritual Journal. It’s available on Kindle or in paperback (the paperback has 31 days of blank journaling pages with prompts to help you get started).

Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥

Note about this post:

I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer. 

A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”

I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)

I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.