I once, believed that worldliness was a life-style of those going to parties, watching movies, drinking, smoking and various other habits. But at a closer look, I realized that we the church of Christ also suffer from this contagious disease of ‘worldliness’ at a very critical level. We respond to the altar calls, we make up our minds to follow Christ, we faithfully do confess our shortcomings before the Lord but when it comes to keeping up the commitment we made, we end up excusing ourselves on a “next time” try basis. We convince ourselves not to repeat it again with every new day. Days & months pass by but we would not have had a quality fellowship time with our Lord on daily basis.

This state of a believer which totally distorts his/her personal relationship with God is the consequence of the ‘world’ sinking into the nature of the man. Worldliness in the soul is as dangerous as cancer in the body. And once injected, this multiplies into huge tumours corrupting the mind of the victim, damaging or utterly destroying the spiritual progress of the soul. After it reaches a matured state, it becomes very difficult for the victim to release himself from the clutches of it by any human effort.

In Short, worldliness is spiritual immaturity (1 Corinth 3:1-3); It is enmity with God (James 4:4); It is the mind governed by the flesh, which is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so (Rom 8:7); It is carnality or the desires for pleasure that wars within our members (James 4:1). Failure to overcome worldliness drags the victim to the fire of hell.

Pathetic is the state of the believer who is caught up in this, yet there is a way out for those who earnestly want to break-free from this bondage. Bible has a perfect cure for this deadly soul disease revealed in James 4: 7-10. If you are caught up in this peril, don’t fail to follow the following steps leading you to a place of absolute victory over the enemy.

1. Submit to God: James clearly states that the war within our members is because of our desires for pleasures against the word of God (James 4:1). It is our own desire which entices us and draws us away to tempt us giving birth to sin (James 1:14-15). The solution for this is to faithfully address those desires which are making you to lust against the Spirit and bring them under subjection of the Spirit God to obey Him. If they cry out to you to pull you down, you cry out to God for help against them. On doing so you do not let the sin reign in your mortal body, thus destroying the dominion of sin in you by the grace of God (Rom 6:12-14).
2. Resist the devil: Even after you committing it to God’s hands, the devil will make faithful attempts to entice you again. Remember then, that the devil is purely lying to you and you must adamantly reject his plea and hold on to your faith. The temptation would be but for a moment after which will either be freedom on resisting the devil or a greater fall than earlier on yielding to the temptation. Be strong during that short period of test & resist the devil, he will flee from you (He can’t afford to waste his time on you beyond that. You see he has only one third of angels on his side).
3. Draw near to God: You have cleaned the wound & plastered it too but now it must heal and this healing of the soul would happen only in God’s presence. As you draw near to God & fellowship with Him, God restores your soul with all that was stolen – a burning heart, passionate soul, the mind of Christ by the power of His Spirit. He shall draw you into a gradual bonding with Him by giving you a brand new start from where you had fallen and further shields you from the future attacks of the enemy.
4. Cleanse your hands: Repent for all that has happened and let the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse you as if you had never ever sinned. Be transformed in mind & Spirit. Let all the works of your hand be sanctified such that you bare the fruit of righteousness in all that you do. Could be your daily chores or your corporate life, do everything such that the name of the Lord will be glorified through all. Let nothing be done out of hypocrisy, greed, carnality or self-seeking. Let your conduct be good such that your faith is justified by works (James 2:24).
5. Purify your hearts: Flush out all the dirt from your heart. Don’t let the dirt of bitterness, envy, strife, jealously etc that the enemy had deposited get accumulated in your heart. At the earliest you must wash them off & save your heart from being rotten with them. Secondly, Do not doubt (For those who doubt do not receive anything from the Lord- James 1:7), God does not want you to be double minded about Him. Trust God and continue to do good, for you will be rewarded in the due time. Guard your faith well, because that’s the favourite point of attack of our enemy.
6. Lament, mourn and weep: Let your soul now be deprived for all those luxuries it once fed upon. If it mourns, let it mourn. This deprivation process in very necessary, for it is through this that we learn to discipline ourselves to obey our Lord. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening–it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way (Heb 12:11). Let your laughter be turned to mourning till you receive a fresh touch from the Lord. Develop a broken & a contrite spirit for the Lord. For a slothful, lavish spirit is a grief to the Father but a contrite spirit – brings great glory of His name.
7. Humble yourselves: How was the last time you humbled yourself before your parents when you didn’t fare well in the exams? How did you humble yourself before your boss, to get that promotion for yourself? How did you humble yourself before that Man of God, when you were in desperate need of prayers? Yes, like that & much more than that, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. Go to the Lord with fasting & a contrite spirit. Kneel straight before Him. Don’t pity your flesh but with everything call upon the name of the Lord.

 And with the end of all this, Lord promises to do something for you! Yes, there is a SURE PROMISE awaiting to be fulfilled for you. James 4:10 says, after all the purging, cleaning & pruning process, God has determined to NOW, lift you up in the sight of all! What a joy it is to witness the heaven invading your heart, when the joy of the Lord becomes your strength and when you arise as a living testimony among the rest and bring glory to His name! Truly as Paul said in 2 Corin 4:17, the suffering could be but for a moment, but the weight of glory that would be revealed through you would be way beyond any comparison.

Press on to this call me dear friends. Don’t let the world paralyze your walk with God. Remember this scripture always- For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. – 1 John 2:16-17

Don’t let the enemy fool you again.
You will not fail. You are purposed to be a great blessing.

-Much love!
Sis. Shruti P Vottepu