{"id":5791,"date":"2019-08-25T19:33:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T09:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5791"},"modified":"2019-08-25T19:33:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T09:33:48","slug":"forsake-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/forsake-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Forsake the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Forsake the World<\/b><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Monica Gerges<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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To forsake the world is a difficult feat – the struggle is real and constant.<\/p>\n

Our thoughts and decisions either reflect the values of the world we live in or reflect the values that Christ teaches us and so every thought we have and every decision we make either draws us closer to God or pushes us away. It\u2019s ultimately up to us.<\/p>\n

It seems simple enough. But if it\u2019s so simple, why is it such a struggle?<\/p>\n

The truth is, we are weak \u2013 mere humans. And we\u2019re up against a merciless and enticing world. It isn\u2019t much of a competition. On our own there\u2019s no hope of victory. But what we sometimes forget is that God is our hope and victory \u2013 stronger and greater than it all.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we feel chained and enslaved to the world. No matter how hard we try, we can\u2019t break free of the world that\u2019s holding us back from being with the One we love. We pray that God would give us the strength to forsake the world but what we fail to realised is this: the only way to forsake the world, is to literally forsake it \u2013 to just leave it. I personally learnt that I feel the most free when I find the time to escape the world – it\u2019s stresses, tribulations and temptations and just be in the presence of God and behold the beauty of the Lord.<\/p>\n

So our lives need to become about seeking the reverend presence of God. We cannot dismiss the importance of setting aside time to spend time with the Lord but we also need to be able to seek the presence of God in our daily activities and even in the world.<\/p>\n

The ability to see God in our surroundings is founded on our relationship with Him. The better we know Him, the easier it is to identify Him in ourselves, in others and in the world around us and in this way we never leave the presence of God.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that, as Christians, we are called to be different. We are called to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who persecute us and bless those who curse us (Luke 6:27-36). We are called to be lights in the world that glorify the name of the Lord (Matthew 5:14-16). We are called to be in the world but not of it. We are called to be God\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forsake the World by\u00a0Monica Gerges To forsake the world is a difficult feat – the struggle is real and constant. Our thoughts and decisions either reflect the values of the world we live in or reflect the values that Christ teaches us and so every thought we have and every decision we make either draws … Continue reading “Forsake the World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5793,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions\/5793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}