Pleasing God? Great, But Get Ready for Battle!
The Lord has been doing amazing things in my life lately and I honestly can't wait to share! My husband and I were baptized in the Holy Spirit three weeks ago, we got married two weeks ago and decided to wash each other's feet like Jesus did for his disciples (which The Lord used to touch a lot of people), my husband and I have been drawing more near to Jesus each day, and we are both noticing how our desire to learn about Him and please Him is becoming our main focus. God has become the lens through which we view our lives and all our activities, but that has opened our eyes to exactly why the Christian life can be so challenging, and confusing, to walk out.
Both Shawn and I knew the Christian life would be awesome and very rewarding, but we are starting to see where a lot of the challenge comes in. More than a few people made fun of our decision to wash each others' feet at our wedding. People always mock the things they don't understand but knowing that didn't make it any easier. Some of those people were family members and their words stung. At the time I felt the need to instantly defend myself and the decision I knew God himself placed on my heart, but Jesus reminded me of the humble example he set time and time again when people mocked or attacked Him. Some people made jokes about it after the ceremony was over, which surprised me at first, but after later learning about the way it effected so many people, I understand why they did. Our demonstration of the washing of the feet, and the beautiful things our pastor chose to say about it before we began brought tears to many peoples' eyes. Having a man love you enough, in the heat of an argument for example, to stop yelling at or God-forbid hitting you, to get down on his knees, ask your forgiveness, and then humble himself by washing your feet, is not something most woman can even imagine. The thought, however, brought tears for several. It's a powerful depiction of how Jesus calls us all to treat each other, particularly in a marriage, and it proved to be very moving. Our pastor actually spoke about it in church the next day, centering his whole message around it and how much more powerful it was then he even expected. His wife, in a later conversation with me, told me about a girl who came up to them after the ceremony and sought their counsel about turning from her sin and moving out of her boyfriend's house to make her relationship right before God, as we felt led to do before we got married. Shawn and I had a baby and were living together before our wedding, but after I gave my life to The Lord, got plugged into an amazing church, and started marriage counseling, God placed it on my heart that we needed to turn from that. Just because we had already made some wrong decisions did NOT mean it was too late to make the right ones. I didn't know at the time what a powerful testimony that would become, but it is already touching other people and I am grateful God could use my sin and the way I turned from it to help others do the same. This all sounds pretty good, and it is, but there's another side to it too. If these things are making Jesus happy, who are they upsetting? You got it, the Devil. He is NOT happy with Shawn and I, and we are beginning to feel the effects of that.
Think about it. This is a dangerous platform. More than 70% of babies are born out of wedlock and couples living together before they get married has become the new norm. As my mom used to say, however, "Wrong is wrong, even if everybody's doing it, and right is right, even if nobody's doing it." Marriage is God's covenant, and he intended couples to enter into it and THEN live together and have children. Jesus Christ entered the world to pave a way back to God for all of us so lost in sin. Jesus payed the penalty for our sins and died in our place so that we can still be with God and live eternally with Him, as he originally intended. The only requirement is that we must accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, seek his forgiveness, repenting of our sins and then turning from them. Shawn and I have become a light and I have a feeling God plans to use us within our church and hopefully in a larger arena to testify to couples living in sin that it isn't too late to repent, turn from it, and still receive God's grace and blessings in their relationships. What a powerful testimony and as a result, my pastor's wife warned us that we have now entered into a spiritual battle. Satan is the prince of this world, unfortunately, and he does NOT like it when couples stay chaste before marriage or repent and then return to chaste living until their wedding, enter into marriage (keeping God's covenant), and fight for their marriage. So, as a result, Shawn and I have begun to witness Satan already trying to mess with our marriage and our future in Christ. We feel strongly that God wants us to stay in Buffalo, connected to a strong Christian church where there are so many great classes, ministry opportunities open to us, and a great family of believers we are just beginning to get to know, but Satan has been providing some tempting job offers outside of the area. And since he's smart, he knows exactly where to present those offers and for exactly how much more money to catch our attention. For those of us who live for Christ, Satan makes his own voice as God's so that it's hard not to tell the difference. This has been proving quite difficult to discern, as it is for most Christians, but that's what I wanted to write this blog. The devil messes with all of us, tempting us to sin in ways that make it seem almost right, which is why it's so important to know how he works and how to pray about Him.
A great amount of information has been shared with me lately concerning the Devil, and since it has been very helpful to me as a new Christian, I figured I would share it here - mostly because it's honestly confusing! Satan is actually a fallen angel. He disguises himself as an angel of light, capitalizing on our love of the light in order to deceive us, so it can be hard to tell the difference between his voice/messages and God's. My pastor's wife told me, as a result, that my husband and I need to keep praying for discernment, that God will give us eyes and ears to discern when we are hearing His voice and when we are hearing the Devil's. She also encouraged us to prepare for battle with the Word, staying close to it every day and getting familiar with it so we can refer to it when something we think God (but really Satan) is telling us seems not quite right. Only by knowing how God works and what Jesus taught can we know when it's not Him. Next, we need to know what to look for to know that Satan is at work. First, his schemes are targeted to increase our desire for something outside the will of God. For example, if you lost your job and feel that God was working on your pride get offered a job that is less money than you want but allows you time off to attend your church for service and group meetings, but immediately after that you get a call outside the area for a BIG dollar job, Satan might be at work. Just an example. :) Second, his schemes/temptations will make us think that giving into a weakness is no big deal. Example - let's say you know shopping is a weakness of yours and God has been convicting you of it and teaching you to save and spend your money more wisely, but then you get a big bonus and "a thought" pops into your head that it wouldn't be bad to spend it because technically it's free money, Satan might be at work. Third, he will minimize our ability to think through the consequences of a temptation. Things might happen fast, he might use alcohol or drugs, or he'll mask his work so well that you don't even realize you're buying into anything you should think about first. It's quite scary to think about how very often he talks to us and infiltrates our lives and thinking without us even realizing it.
In the Bible God tells us that Satan is the father of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus says, "You belong to your father, the fevil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murdered from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Think back to the Garden of Eden. Isn't that exactly what Satan did? He told Eve a lie. He told her that she certainly would not die, if she ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the way God said she would. And of course, his lie sounded good. Who wouldn't want to believe it? He made it easy for Eve to do the wrong thing, by planting a seed of doubt in her mind, and that's what he's still doing to each one of us today. We know what's right and wrong in our head, for the most part, but Satan will rationalize that for you so it's easier and more comfortable to do the wrong thing. He'll make it seem almost right. For us Christians, he'll make it seem almost as though God himself would say it. It can get confusing if, which is why it's so important to pray for discernment and to stay deep in God's Word.
So what else can we do to avoid falling victim to Satan's lies and telling lies ourselves? "Repent and believe in the Gospel," according to Mark 1:15. Do not let doubt enter your mind. Satan thrives on us doubting God's goodness and teachings. We are called to believe in Jesus and the message he came to bring us, a message of repentance and salvation. "Jesus is the truth, and he will never deceive you. The Bible promises that all who come to Jesus in faith will find that "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). What an amazing promise in the middle of a world full of deceit and temptation! The truth might not be obvious to you right away, thanks to Satan's schemes, but if you go to Jesus and pray for the truth, believing He will reveal it to you through the Word, He will!
Ephesians 6:17 instructs us to "put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The Christian life is a spiritual battle, make no mistake of it, and the things that are happening to you don't just happen by chance. So stay strong in Christ, keep praying for His guidance, truth, and light, and may we all make Satan less and less happy every day! Amen!
Both Shawn and I knew the Christian life would be awesome and very rewarding, but we are starting to see where a lot of the challenge comes in. More than a few people made fun of our decision to wash each others' feet at our wedding. People always mock the things they don't understand but knowing that didn't make it any easier. Some of those people were family members and their words stung. At the time I felt the need to instantly defend myself and the decision I knew God himself placed on my heart, but Jesus reminded me of the humble example he set time and time again when people mocked or attacked Him. Some people made jokes about it after the ceremony was over, which surprised me at first, but after later learning about the way it effected so many people, I understand why they did. Our demonstration of the washing of the feet, and the beautiful things our pastor chose to say about it before we began brought tears to many peoples' eyes. Having a man love you enough, in the heat of an argument for example, to stop yelling at or God-forbid hitting you, to get down on his knees, ask your forgiveness, and then humble himself by washing your feet, is not something most woman can even imagine. The thought, however, brought tears for several. It's a powerful depiction of how Jesus calls us all to treat each other, particularly in a marriage, and it proved to be very moving. Our pastor actually spoke about it in church the next day, centering his whole message around it and how much more powerful it was then he even expected. His wife, in a later conversation with me, told me about a girl who came up to them after the ceremony and sought their counsel about turning from her sin and moving out of her boyfriend's house to make her relationship right before God, as we felt led to do before we got married. Shawn and I had a baby and were living together before our wedding, but after I gave my life to The Lord, got plugged into an amazing church, and started marriage counseling, God placed it on my heart that we needed to turn from that. Just because we had already made some wrong decisions did NOT mean it was too late to make the right ones. I didn't know at the time what a powerful testimony that would become, but it is already touching other people and I am grateful God could use my sin and the way I turned from it to help others do the same. This all sounds pretty good, and it is, but there's another side to it too. If these things are making Jesus happy, who are they upsetting? You got it, the Devil. He is NOT happy with Shawn and I, and we are beginning to feel the effects of that.
Think about it. This is a dangerous platform. More than 70% of babies are born out of wedlock and couples living together before they get married has become the new norm. As my mom used to say, however, "Wrong is wrong, even if everybody's doing it, and right is right, even if nobody's doing it." Marriage is God's covenant, and he intended couples to enter into it and THEN live together and have children. Jesus Christ entered the world to pave a way back to God for all of us so lost in sin. Jesus payed the penalty for our sins and died in our place so that we can still be with God and live eternally with Him, as he originally intended. The only requirement is that we must accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, seek his forgiveness, repenting of our sins and then turning from them. Shawn and I have become a light and I have a feeling God plans to use us within our church and hopefully in a larger arena to testify to couples living in sin that it isn't too late to repent, turn from it, and still receive God's grace and blessings in their relationships. What a powerful testimony and as a result, my pastor's wife warned us that we have now entered into a spiritual battle. Satan is the prince of this world, unfortunately, and he does NOT like it when couples stay chaste before marriage or repent and then return to chaste living until their wedding, enter into marriage (keeping God's covenant), and fight for their marriage. So, as a result, Shawn and I have begun to witness Satan already trying to mess with our marriage and our future in Christ. We feel strongly that God wants us to stay in Buffalo, connected to a strong Christian church where there are so many great classes, ministry opportunities open to us, and a great family of believers we are just beginning to get to know, but Satan has been providing some tempting job offers outside of the area. And since he's smart, he knows exactly where to present those offers and for exactly how much more money to catch our attention. For those of us who live for Christ, Satan makes his own voice as God's so that it's hard not to tell the difference. This has been proving quite difficult to discern, as it is for most Christians, but that's what I wanted to write this blog. The devil messes with all of us, tempting us to sin in ways that make it seem almost right, which is why it's so important to know how he works and how to pray about Him.
A great amount of information has been shared with me lately concerning the Devil, and since it has been very helpful to me as a new Christian, I figured I would share it here - mostly because it's honestly confusing! Satan is actually a fallen angel. He disguises himself as an angel of light, capitalizing on our love of the light in order to deceive us, so it can be hard to tell the difference between his voice/messages and God's. My pastor's wife told me, as a result, that my husband and I need to keep praying for discernment, that God will give us eyes and ears to discern when we are hearing His voice and when we are hearing the Devil's. She also encouraged us to prepare for battle with the Word, staying close to it every day and getting familiar with it so we can refer to it when something we think God (but really Satan) is telling us seems not quite right. Only by knowing how God works and what Jesus taught can we know when it's not Him. Next, we need to know what to look for to know that Satan is at work. First, his schemes are targeted to increase our desire for something outside the will of God. For example, if you lost your job and feel that God was working on your pride get offered a job that is less money than you want but allows you time off to attend your church for service and group meetings, but immediately after that you get a call outside the area for a BIG dollar job, Satan might be at work. Just an example. :) Second, his schemes/temptations will make us think that giving into a weakness is no big deal. Example - let's say you know shopping is a weakness of yours and God has been convicting you of it and teaching you to save and spend your money more wisely, but then you get a big bonus and "a thought" pops into your head that it wouldn't be bad to spend it because technically it's free money, Satan might be at work. Third, he will minimize our ability to think through the consequences of a temptation. Things might happen fast, he might use alcohol or drugs, or he'll mask his work so well that you don't even realize you're buying into anything you should think about first. It's quite scary to think about how very often he talks to us and infiltrates our lives and thinking without us even realizing it.
In the Bible God tells us that Satan is the father of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus says, "You belong to your father, the fevil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murdered from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Think back to the Garden of Eden. Isn't that exactly what Satan did? He told Eve a lie. He told her that she certainly would not die, if she ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the way God said she would. And of course, his lie sounded good. Who wouldn't want to believe it? He made it easy for Eve to do the wrong thing, by planting a seed of doubt in her mind, and that's what he's still doing to each one of us today. We know what's right and wrong in our head, for the most part, but Satan will rationalize that for you so it's easier and more comfortable to do the wrong thing. He'll make it seem almost right. For us Christians, he'll make it seem almost as though God himself would say it. It can get confusing if, which is why it's so important to pray for discernment and to stay deep in God's Word.
So what else can we do to avoid falling victim to Satan's lies and telling lies ourselves? "Repent and believe in the Gospel," according to Mark 1:15. Do not let doubt enter your mind. Satan thrives on us doubting God's goodness and teachings. We are called to believe in Jesus and the message he came to bring us, a message of repentance and salvation. "Jesus is the truth, and he will never deceive you. The Bible promises that all who come to Jesus in faith will find that "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). What an amazing promise in the middle of a world full of deceit and temptation! The truth might not be obvious to you right away, thanks to Satan's schemes, but if you go to Jesus and pray for the truth, believing He will reveal it to you through the Word, He will!
Ephesians 6:17 instructs us to "put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The Christian life is a spiritual battle, make no mistake of it, and the things that are happening to you don't just happen by chance. So stay strong in Christ, keep praying for His guidance, truth, and light, and may we all make Satan less and less happy every day! Amen!
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