“Healthy affections start by looking above for love, so we can love big below!”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – May 23, 2025
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2
Have you ever noticed how your mind can agree with something while your heart runs in the opposite direction? That gap between knowing and wanting reveals a helpful truth: we don’t merely think our way through life—we love our way through it. Every decision you made today—from hitting snooze to which notifications you checked first—was quietly shaped by your deepest affections. That’s what Scripture and centuries of Christian wisdom call our “loves” or “affections.” C.S. Lewis, in Four Loves, describes affection as a humble love, “Affection, as I have said, is the humblest love. It gives itself no airs.” These invisible currents pull us toward what we truly value, often below the surface of our conscious thinking.
I find my affections can be openly contradictory. One moment, I’m drawn to what nourishes my soul—prayer, meaningful conversation, creative work—and the next, I mindlessly scroll through social media or obsess over how I’m perceived. Sound familiar? What is attractive about the Christian understanding of desire is that it does not shame us for feeling deeply. Instead, it invites us to become curious archaeologists of our own hearts. What am I truly chasing here? What am I afraid of losing? What do I construct my days around when no one is watching?
Jesus cut straight to this heart reality when He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It’s His gentle way of saying that your calendar and credit card tell a more honest story about your worship than your Sunday attendance does. Show me what captivates your attention, consumes your resources, and colors your imagination, and I’ll show you your functional deity. The ancient desert fathers compared our disordered affections to a river flowing in the wrong direction. The solution isn’t to dam the river; it’s to redirect it. As Augustine wisely observed, our problem isn’t that we desire too much, but that we desire too little. We settle for hollow echoes when God offers a symphony. Affections rightly regulated and directed develop a deep love.
I think of my friend Jack, who spent years climbing the corporate ladder, chasing the next promotion, the bigger house, and the impressive title. “I had everything I thought I wanted,” he told me, “And still felt hollow inside.” His awakening came not through abandoning ambition but through reordering it—placing character above achievement, generosity above accumulation, presence above productivity. This reordering doesn’t happen overnight. It’s more like the slow turning of a massive ship—degree by degree, our hearts realign through countless small surrenders. Whenever we choose worship over worry, generosity over greed, or forgiveness over bitterness, we’re participating in God’s recalibration of our affections.
Jonathan Edwards called this the cultivation of “holy affections”—not sterile duty but desire transformed. A growing love for what God loves. An increasing distaste for what diminishes life. A hunger for justice, beauty, and truth that comes not from obligation but from a heart being remade. So, if you find your affections pulling you in conflicting directions today, take heart. That tension itself is evidence of the Spirit’s work. Bring that beautiful, messy contradiction before Jesus. He’s not scanning for perfect desire—He’s looking for honest surrender. Because ultimately, Christianity isn’t merely about correct thinking—it’s about rightly ordered loving. And when our loves fall into their proper places, with God at the center, everything else finds its rightful home, too. Healthy affections start by looking above for love, so we can love big below!
Prayer
Lord, help me set my affections on things above. Lift my heart from earthly distractions. Let my desires align with Your will, and my love be centered in You alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Application
What captures your emotional energy and mental imagination? Are you growing healthy affections in loving God and others and being loved by God and others?
Related Reading
Psalm 73:25; Romans 12:10; Galatians 5:24; Philippians 1:8
Worship Resource
The Worship Initiative/Davy Flowers: No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus
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