Year 5, Day 24: Romans 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval, Appetite, Ambition

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.
• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.
• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

As I listened to Paul unpack his theology in this opening chapter, I couldn’t help but think in terms of Approval, Appetite, and Ambition.  Look at how Paul unpacks what he says in the second half of the chapter.  It all begins with our desire to not see how God has revealed Himself to us.  His invisible attributes have been shown to us throughout all creation.

This leads us into our own ambition.  We think to be wise, but God knows we are still fools.  We happily exchange the desire and will of God for our own agendas and the glory of the world around us.  Therefore God gives us over to our own sinfulness.

Of course, this leads us into our appetite.  When God gives us over, we fall into our own lusts.  We start to obey our hearts.  We do what seems right in our own eyes.  We do what seems fun.  We do what we want.

Why do we do this?  Paul tells us why in the last verse in this chapter.  We do it for the approval of others who do these things.  We do it so that we can approve of others who do the same thing.  We do it for approval.

We should be seeking God’s approval.  We should be seeking God’s will instead of filling our own appetite.  We should be ambitious towards the heart of God and not ourselves.

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