“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” (1 John 2:15). The way of faith always represents collision with the world (κόσμος) and its philosophy of the “good life.” Happy are those who “hunger and thirst” for righteousness, who refrain from this world and make themselves its exiles because of their inner heartache for true life. For them no amount of the world’s pleasures can obscure the difference between what is and what ought to be… This world is at best a corridor to the world to come, a “valley of decision” about what we ultimately choose to believe and to love… The heart of faith looks forward to “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
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- Psalm 42:2a Hebrew Card (pdf)
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There is a great danger to become so assimilated into this world that either the soul gets lost in worldly politics and its phony dialectic between “good” and “evil,” or that the soul grows numb and cold — without any concern or protest against the schemes of the wicked and troubles of this age… Conscience is seared; natural affections have been abandoned; and the “life” of the soul becomes a mere cipher, a phantom, a ghost… This is the scheme of the worldly dialectic that traps the human soul into living and dying for the sake of sheer vanity. May God help us not to so waste our days… The core prayer of the godly soul is always, “Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your faithful love” (Psalm 109:26). Empty our hearts from vanity, O LORD, and afflict us with hunger and thirst for You, for you alone are what we really need….
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- Psalm 109:26 Hebrew Card (pdf)
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