Hooked

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  –James 1:14

About a year and a half ago I went fly fishing with my brother, Jonathan.  For him, fishing is much more than a hobby or a sport; it’s a skill.  He spends hours designing flies that he thinks the fish will bite, and he spends days building rods that can be cast in a perfect motion and that will be sensitive enough to feel even the slightest nibble of the fish.  His goal is to entice those fish to take the bait.  When he took me fishing he said, “Seth, you need to think like a fish.”  His goal is to make the fish think that this thing in front of it (the fly) is exactly what is going to satisfy its appetite.  But the fly is simply a trap, and once the fish is hooked, it’s a goner! 

The fact that a fish desires food isn’t wrong just as the desires that we have aren’t wrong either.  The problem comes when we try to fulfill those desires in ways that are outside of God’s will.  The desire to eat is necessary, but when we become gluttonous we sin.  The desire for sex is a good thing so that the earth can be populated and so we can experience intimacy with someone else, but to fulfill that desire outside of marriage brings consequences.  It is when we allow desires to overtake us that they move into the realm of sin.  Do you have any God-given desires that you’ve been fulfilling in a way that sidesteps God’s will?   If so, it’s time to confess them to God and to begin allowing Him to fulfill those desires in a way that isn’t sinful.