Be On Guard
Deuteronomy 13:3 - "The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him."
When Christians used to say, “God is testing you or will test you”, I thought, “what kind of God is this”? I couldn’t ever figure out why God would want to test me. Is He out to get me? Out to bring me down?
Lately, this idea and passage above have come into clearer focus. In Deuteronomy the author in this section is talking about prophets who give false prophecies to the people of Israel so that they will worship other gods and not their God. As you can see the gist of the passage is to stay faithful and loyal to God in the midst of testing (follow, revere, serve and hold fast). So why would God ever test us? “To find out whether we love God with all our heart and with all our soul”.
However, as a Christian, this is where the water becomes murky. (as an interesting side note: this matter doesn’t seem to be so much about small decisions or even big life directional decisions but about being faithful in whatever we’re doing. I always put so much emphasis on doing the “right” thing in life that God’s “called” me to. But this passage seems to put calling more in the context of faithfulness to our relationship with God, no matter what we're doing, rather than finding “the right path” in life.) I have found as of late that there are so many things that test me. I am not a full blown charismatic and have never known how much weight to give this stuff, but since working in a Church testing has taken on a whole new meaning. In a Church there are many different kinds of testing: there may be false prophets; their may be different spirits; there are disgruntled people; there are hurt people; there is my own sin; powers and principalities and lastly Satan.
I have not read the screw tape letters by C.S. Lewis, but it has come up a number of times recently. The gist of the book, from what I know of it, is how satan and his companions operate; deceiving, dividing and discouraging people whenever possible. I am not one to read into EVERYTHING spiritually, as I know there are so many different things at work in our lives. Like people, circumstances, history, sin, spiritual factors etc. However, I must say that I have begun to re-consider the different powers at work in our world and how they influence me. Is this thought or event or perception from God or the devil?
We tend to take satan or demonic powers as a joke in our “advanced” western society. Usually Christians who believe in that stuff are fanatics and freaks. But it should concern us that the majority of Christian teachers and theologians since the beginning of the Church, not to mention Jesus Christ, have taken very seriously the works of the devil. Why are we so quick to disregard the possibility of the devils influence? But wouldn’t that be exactly what the devil would want? I mean think about it, wouldn’t the devil be more affective in his destructive work if we didn’t acknowledge or believe that it could be him who is confusing us, tempting us and leading us into sin?
I’m not saying that I’m a spiritual guru who knows exactly when satan is at work and when he’s not. But it’s safe to say from a biblical perspective that he is at work. So where does that leave us? It seems like a long way from Deuteronomy but I think it’s not actually. On Biblegateway.com google the word “guard” in the keyword search. Jesus and the apostles used the word many times and I believe this is what the author of Deuteronomy was getting at: stay on guard so that you are able to stay faithful in the midst of testing and trial so that your love for God may shine forth. Guarding our faith from the enemy for me lately has been actively saying “no” when temptations come. Whether that temptation is from God, my sin and rebellion or the enemy I don’t always know. But being on guard has opened me up a new level awareness in the ways that my wayward thoughts and actions may actually be a trap from the evil one. Be on guard and love God with all your heart and soul no matter what you're doing or what trials and tests you face.
When Christians used to say, “God is testing you or will test you”, I thought, “what kind of God is this”? I couldn’t ever figure out why God would want to test me. Is He out to get me? Out to bring me down?
Lately, this idea and passage above have come into clearer focus. In Deuteronomy the author in this section is talking about prophets who give false prophecies to the people of Israel so that they will worship other gods and not their God. As you can see the gist of the passage is to stay faithful and loyal to God in the midst of testing (follow, revere, serve and hold fast). So why would God ever test us? “To find out whether we love God with all our heart and with all our soul”.
However, as a Christian, this is where the water becomes murky. (as an interesting side note: this matter doesn’t seem to be so much about small decisions or even big life directional decisions but about being faithful in whatever we’re doing. I always put so much emphasis on doing the “right” thing in life that God’s “called” me to. But this passage seems to put calling more in the context of faithfulness to our relationship with God, no matter what we're doing, rather than finding “the right path” in life.) I have found as of late that there are so many things that test me. I am not a full blown charismatic and have never known how much weight to give this stuff, but since working in a Church testing has taken on a whole new meaning. In a Church there are many different kinds of testing: there may be false prophets; their may be different spirits; there are disgruntled people; there are hurt people; there is my own sin; powers and principalities and lastly Satan.
I have not read the screw tape letters by C.S. Lewis, but it has come up a number of times recently. The gist of the book, from what I know of it, is how satan and his companions operate; deceiving, dividing and discouraging people whenever possible. I am not one to read into EVERYTHING spiritually, as I know there are so many different things at work in our lives. Like people, circumstances, history, sin, spiritual factors etc. However, I must say that I have begun to re-consider the different powers at work in our world and how they influence me. Is this thought or event or perception from God or the devil?
We tend to take satan or demonic powers as a joke in our “advanced” western society. Usually Christians who believe in that stuff are fanatics and freaks. But it should concern us that the majority of Christian teachers and theologians since the beginning of the Church, not to mention Jesus Christ, have taken very seriously the works of the devil. Why are we so quick to disregard the possibility of the devils influence? But wouldn’t that be exactly what the devil would want? I mean think about it, wouldn’t the devil be more affective in his destructive work if we didn’t acknowledge or believe that it could be him who is confusing us, tempting us and leading us into sin?
I’m not saying that I’m a spiritual guru who knows exactly when satan is at work and when he’s not. But it’s safe to say from a biblical perspective that he is at work. So where does that leave us? It seems like a long way from Deuteronomy but I think it’s not actually. On Biblegateway.com google the word “guard” in the keyword search. Jesus and the apostles used the word many times and I believe this is what the author of Deuteronomy was getting at: stay on guard so that you are able to stay faithful in the midst of testing and trial so that your love for God may shine forth. Guarding our faith from the enemy for me lately has been actively saying “no” when temptations come. Whether that temptation is from God, my sin and rebellion or the enemy I don’t always know. But being on guard has opened me up a new level awareness in the ways that my wayward thoughts and actions may actually be a trap from the evil one. Be on guard and love God with all your heart and soul no matter what you're doing or what trials and tests you face.
posted by Matt at
6:02 AM
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