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Flee The Evil Desires of...

             Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (II Timothy 2:22)

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. (I Timothy 4:12)

One of the problems Pastor Timothy faced was his youth, so Paul wasn’t advising some 60-year-old to flee the evil desires of youth. One of the evil desires we face in the middle years (traditionally) is a desire to return to our youth. I suspect, however, that had Timothy been seventy-something, Paul might have advised him to flee the desires of the aged. We’re not safe from evil desires once we hit a certain age.

Of course, not fleeing from the evil desires of any age automatically produces a lack of purity. But what does one do to flee? One option is to physically leave the source or focus of the evil. Another is to pray for a means of escape or pray about God’s perspective on the thing in question. Take your temptation to the Father.

Over the last twenty-four hours, I’ve been struggling against evil desires. And one of the weapons I’ve been using against them is to pray the exact opposite of what I want. Listening to worship music or doing some hard work also helps. Excuses and pity parties don’t.

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