this bible reading thing matters

 Jeff brought up 1 Peter in a conversation that caused me to double checked myself.. back home reading through the whole book real quick. shockingly, the NLT translation is so down to earth that it's too real to swallow. I never remember Peters to be hard read so, I picked up my NASB study bible to read the same passage and it's very straight forward, not hard to swallow. 

So, back to NLT the chapter I stumbled (literately) upon: Living for God (1 Pet 4)

If you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 

...

and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.

even though I may not necessary be chasing my own desires, I certainly am more anxious about those fulfillment than the will of God... Tim Keller points out in his book, counterfeit Gods, the difference between sorrow and despair in most cases is idolatry since despair is unbearable sorrow. Idols dominate our lives destructively. Why is allowing someone to achieve their fondest dreams would be the greatest punishment in Rom 1:24 (given them over to the desires of their hearts)? Because our hearts fashion these desires into idols.

When I'm down, is it because I, too, look to the idols for fulfillment more than I look to the one true God.