Who Do You Love?

Annie Hawks wrote I Need Thee Every Hour back in 1872. It doesn't take a genius to decipher the message: "I need Thee every hour." The song has several good points in it, but the one I'm looking at is in the second verse. She writes,

I need Thee every hour,
Stay Thou near by;
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh.

For the uninitiated, she is saying that when she is closest to Christ, she is the least tempted to sin.

No, Annie isn't writing Scripture, but it's the same idea that Jesus stated. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15) The closer we draw to Christ, the less sin tempts us. In fact, isn't that present in Jesus's famous, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt 6:21)?

We view our sin problem as a problem of our will and our strength. We either lack the will or the ability (or both) to fend off temptation. Jesus places the problem elsewhere. The question isn't "How much can you do?" It is "Who do you love?" We are told, for instance, to "Flee from sexual immorality." (1 Cor 6:18) That's all well and good and appears to be a product of the proper will and ability, but the command alone doesn't tell us where to flee to. Just ... run? No. It's not about me and my proper will and my personal capabilities. In fact, relying on those is what gets me into trouble.

The problem, then, is the heart (Matt 15:17-19). The problem is what we treasure. The problem is what or who we love. Because the way we work properly is by "God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Php 2:12-13) Not on our own.

We do need Him. Perhaps Annie was a bit too ambitious; I need Him every moment. Because godly living is not a product of my will and my efforts and avoiding temptation is not all up to me. The real question is "Who do you love?" If you (or anyone but Christ) are at the top of your list, avoiding temptation will be downright impossible. If you are fleeing to the arms of your Savior, "you will obey My commandments." And I will remind myself of that every chance I get.