Why I’m not upgrading my cell phone, though I really want to – Shield of Faith, Preview

I recently received an email from my cell phone provider with an offer to upgrade my phone.  My current phone is three years old, and it is a base model.  The more advanced models have larger screens, better cameras and other features such as facial recognition.

The email tugged at my desires.

I desire a phone with a larger screen, a better camera and facial recognition.  But my current phone is working fine.  Maybe it’s showing signs of decreasing battery life, but barely.  My conclusion is that I don’t need a new phone, and I deleted the email.

Then a few days later I received a mailing from the car dealership where we’ve purchased our last three vehicles.  Mostly the mailer was offering specials on service.  But it got me thinking about our older vehicle.  Like my phone, my vehicle is working mostly fine, though with some signs of aging.  Of course I want a newer car, and I start to rationalize a variety of reasons why it might be a good idea to get a new one.  I’m especially enthralled by electric vehicles.  Or at least a hybrid.  But I throw the mailer in the trash.

I could go on and on, talking about the many times throughout the day I think about stuff that I want but don’t need.  Maybe you know the feeling.  I’m talking about the sometimes confusing battle we all struggle with, the complex mix of our desires, lusts, wants and needs.

Desires are not automatically evil.  Actually, desire is often neutral.  But desire can turn into something extremely selfish, evil and harmful.  There are so many desires.  Desire for money, power, sexuality, peace, security, ease, comfort, taste, position, prestige, reputation, relationship, family, friends, truth, revenge, happiness.  Think about all that you desire.

Where do desires come from? We contemporary Americans live in a culture filled with companies who intentionally target our desires, often in hopes that we will indulge our desires by purchasing their goods and services.  Also our bodies are created by God with natural desires.  Finally, I’m guessing it will come as no surprise that the enemy of God also targets our desires.  The Evil One is the great tempter.  As we continue to study the Armor of God, Paul writes in Ephesians 6:16 that the Devil shoots burning arrows at us.  That’s Paul’s way of describing Satan’s work of tempting us.

What tempts you?  How do you fight temptation?  Paul says that we fight temptation by taking up the Shield of Faith.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually have a device or piece of metal that would help us defeat temptation all the time?  Unfortunately there is no such thing.  Instead Paul is speaking figuratively about faith.  How does faith help us defeat temptation?  Join us on the blog next week as we talk about it.

Photo by Matteo Fusco on Unsplash