1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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.
Recently, our family got together after church and went to a restaurant to eat lunch. My three year old grandson was excited to hear that after lunch he could have some ice cream from a soft serve station there. He gladly ate his lunch, then was ready to attack the ice cream sundae he was given. He dug deep into the tasty treat and shoved a large portion into his mouth. Within a few seconds he began to cry out in pain, at first his parents thought he bit his tongue, then they realized that he was experiencing what most all of us have, an Ice Cream Headache or what is commonly called, “Brain Freeze.”
While the ice cream looked good, and no doubt tasted good for a short period of time, in the end it was a painful lesson to be learned, “Use caution while eating ice cream!” One of my son’s friends that was eating lunch with us commented, “Life can be like an ice cream headache.” I immediately thought that that would be a great blog post. While we may all eat our ice cream a little too fast and suffer the consequences, far too often we consume many of the world’s temptations that have much more drastic results than just a temporary headache.
The Devil likes to paint the world and the sinful activities that draw us away from God, like a tasty treat so to speak. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life all feel good, look good and feed our ego, but in the end draw us away from God’s purpose for our lives. Our affections should be always directed towards the Lord. There are things that are in the world that won’t harm us as a Christian, after all we live in a fallen world and we must function in it. However, there are things that on the surface seem to be fine, yet can have detrimental consequences. We must look to our “First Love,” the Lord Jesus Christ, for direction and guidance in all our decision making.
When we come upon a situation that really looks good, let’s not be too quick to consume it. Take the time to seek the Lord and godly counsel or we may just end up with something more than an Ice Cream Headache!