“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison (Dostoevsky). We may abstain from overt forms of worldliness, but when we subconsciously accept the unspoken assumptions and values of this world, we become functional idolaters. Worldliness seeks its comfort in the present hour; it has its own mythology and religious worship.
Test yourself by thinking about what concerns you most. What takes up most of your attention? What do you really want? Where do you look to find value, significance, and worth? What can’t you live without? Do you desire romantic love? A political change? Are you addicted to entertainment? fantasy-thinking? the internet? your phone, or perhaps your work? Do want your own way and feel frustrated when other demands arise? Do you wrestle with pride? lust? covetousness? Are you tempted by fear or anxiety? Do you make an idol out of your career and “providing for your family?” Or do you perhaps seek religious “observance” or new experiences to justify your spiritual life? What “barns” are you filling today, friend? (Luke 12:16-20). God sees all things, of course; He knows those who “hide deep from the LORD,” whose deeds are in the dark, and think, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” (Isa. 29:15). Yeshua lamented: “This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:8). The LORD says, “Return! Turn from your idols of the heart (i.e., gilgulim, vain repetitions, addictions, reincarnation, illusions, etc.), and be grounded in what is real (Ezek. 14:6). God understands that we are only healed – that is, made whole – when we order our affections aright within our souls. We cannot enjoy the truth about life if we are living a lie. As C.S. Lewis once said, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there” (Mere Christianity).
“Give up yourself and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in” (Lewis: Mere Christianity).