2002-10-14
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
I am led to continue discussing what God has to say about Satan’s fiery darts that motivates us to stronger faith in Him. Faith is a huge issue in our lives. It’s a bit like the concept of energy, no one really knows exactly what it is, but it is viewed from by seeing what it does. I can attest to my personal belief that faith is a gift that comes from God. How do I know this? RO 5: 10-11, “We were God’s enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” Dear Ones, we have been called to faith by our Creator. As HE 11: 1 states, “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” I keep repeating this citation, for two reasons. We need to learn it by heart, and it is the closest statement we have to a definition of this powerful forces in our lives that we have. As we can see, having faith deals with intangibles in our lives, the things we can’t test, hold in our hand, and which don’t obey the laws of physics or relativity. As for Satan’s fiery darts, we often don’t see them coming, but they are as real as the faith we can have to fight them off. They are dangerous challenges to our faith, but when we endure in our faith, I will attest to the fact from my personal experience that enduring faith is stronger than any dart Satan can sent our way.
A Satanic dart that causes so much trouble in our society in North America today is greed. We need only look at all the stories of the corporate CEO’s who have walked away with billions of dollars, leaving their company’s stockholders and employees with huge losses. Long term employees are left without jobs short of retirement age, and stockholders find their investments plummeting on the way to worthlessness. Greed is not only found in the business community. It is often the reason behind political wrangling in our churches and synagogues as well. Let me give an example with the names left out for reasons of privacy. Recently, the member of a large congregation came to a clergy leader to say that he could no longer donate as much to the congregation as before. The clergyman who headed this large, well-to-do congregation said, “You may come to regular services, but you can no longer take any classes here or come to the most holy services during the year.” This can only be a sign of Satan gaining a stronghold in this clergyman and demonstrates the lack of going to God for leadership of the congregation. How sad this tragedy is! I can only hope that the member involved would drop out and find another, more God-led congregation. If enough people from there did this, maybe that clergyman would get the message. Greed in the form of materialism is found in almost every home in today’s society. God must find this grievous! Keeping up with the neighbors, children insisting on wearing clothes with certain labels-to be one of the crowd, and the ever-increasing desire for more, and more, and more-these are the symptoms of greed. Space doesn’t permit me to list every possible example.
Here’s what God has to say about this pervasive problem. EPH 5: 5, “You may be sure that no one who is immoral, indecent, or greedy (for greed is a form of idolatry) will ever receive a share in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.” This concept of detesting greed is nothing new with God. When the Jews were wandering in the desert, God gave them specific directions for managing the supply of manna [food supplied by God] He gave them to prevent greediness. EX 16: 16-18, “The Lord has commanded that each of you is to gather as much of it as he needs, two quarts for each member of his household. The Israelites did this, some gathering more, others gathering less. When they measured it, those who had much, and those who had gathered less did not have too little. Each had gathered just what he needed.” I remember reading about an occasion when some people gathered too much-more than they needed. God adjudicated this greed by having it go bad on them. ECCL 5: 10 reveals a salient truth. “If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless.” If only people understood this truth, they could put their energy into pursuing more godly aims. Personal and corporate greed would become a thing of the past, just as I believe it will be in God’s Kingdom. Greed hurts families. PR 15: 27, “Try to make a profit dishonestly, and you get your family in trouble. Do not take bribes and you will live longer.” Just think of the greed behind the activities of Judas Iscariot and what transpired as a result of trying to earn 30 silver coins [MT 26: 14-16, 47-50; MT 27: 3-10]. And, we can’t forget the message of 1 TIM 6: 9-10, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.”
Dear Ones, we gain wisdom and discernment when we spend daily time in the Scriptures and have an active prayer life by listening for God’s commands and obeying them. Our faith in God is strong enough to break the ties with which Satan binds us. We must be disciplined about turning to God and allowing Him to help us reveal where greed or any other sin is in our lives. He is eager to help us do this, because of His great love for us. Our faith when strong and enduring has the power to thwart Satan’s efforts to gain strongholds in our lives. Faith is one of God’s greatest gifts to us.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come to You in humility, recognizing the rampant greed that exists in our society and with the desire to seek Your help in expunging any greed that remains in our lives. We acknowledge that greed can be a subtle sin, one that we have trouble recognizing is present. You and You alone have imparted us the power we are told about in EPH 1: 18-20 to over come this challenge to our faith and to stop this fiery dart of Satan’s from hitting us where we are vulnerable. We understand that we must be open and honest about this awful problem. Our hearts are open to You, Dearest Abba, and we have faith that You hear our pleas for help. This is a difficult problem, which we cannot solve alone. David’s message in PS 34: 8 furthers our faith that You are our best Source for help. “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” We make time for You and pray the words of PS 5: 3, “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.” You will see in us the discipline of daily prayer and study of Your word. You have made it clear that Your wisdom is greater than that of any person on earth or angel in heaven. PS 32: 8, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.” These are the places from which we shall get encouragement and wise advice. That is why we can join the Psalmist in saying what is in PS 108: 1, “My heart is confident in You, O God; no wonder I can sing Your praises! Wake up, my soul!” Today and each day, we humbly come before You to confess our sins, seek Your help in dealing with Satan’s fiery darts, and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks and praise. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, the Holy Spirit has instructed me to continue this discussion of Satan’s fiery darts and what God has to say about them that builds faith and gives us direction in dealing with them. We will look at illness and loss. Every day that I sit down to write you these messages, I am showered with the most wonderful grace and direction from God’s Spirit. This is such a privilege to have, and I thank God every day for it. I’m am by far not the only one who receives this gift. Everyone who is faithful to God gets it. So, I’m not special-just an ordinary sort who loves her Creator. I am never left without awe for the God Who invited us to have faith in Him and join Him in His work, even through our lives were still wretched at the time. Did God have to invite all the grief mankind has given Him, because He was good enough and wise enough to cede over just enough of His power to allow mankind self-determination? I think not! Yet, He loves us enough to do that. More to the point, He loves us enough to sacrifice His only Son on the cross for us and to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit! That is agape [Greek word for unconditional] love, the kind He wants us to have for Him and each other. God is our Creator, Teacher, Redeemer, and so much more. His Son is our Messiah, and faith in Him gives us eternal life if we endure. That’s love! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn