“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way” (Psalms 119:37)

You don’t have to be a fashion model or movie actor to be addicted to worthless things. According to the Bible, owning the whole world, when compared to your eternal soul, is worthless (Mark 8:36). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). 

 If you care more about the car you drive than where your friends will spend eternity, your life is vanity. Unless you “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), your life is vanity. It’s clear most church-goers need to earnestly pray to God, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way” 

 Are you so caught up in the world’s vanity, you forget to tell others about Christ? What? Doesn’t the prospect of Hell for the people you love motivate you? Can you imagine standing before Christ on Judgment Day after wasting your life on vanity? “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:10-11). 

 Perhaps you need to “examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). 

 We all need to be reminded of the vanity of this life and the permanent states of eternity. Lord, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way”. Amen.