After a few moments, my mouth began to get numb but my
heart was still racing because I knew what he was about to do in there. The thought of it still made me fretful and
anxious. But by the time he began to work on my
tooth, the gas mask had been on my face long enough for its effects to begin to
take place. My body eventually began
to relax. I was still concerned about
what was going on inside my mouth, but I was no longer tense and fretful about
it. Then after a while, I no longer
cared about what he was doing to me. Nothing
had changed about the procedure, the horror of what was taking place was still
being played out in my mouth, but I was unconcerned and unbothered, content to
sit there and suck on that gas mask. In
less than thirty minutes, I went from horrified about my condition to
completely unconcerned and content.
This is what happens to us spiritually when we allow sin
into our lives. All sin, no matter how
seemingly small or insignificant, should make us want to get as far away from
it as we can. That is why the enemy of
our souls works unceasingly to devise subtle ways to desensitize us towards
sin, so he can accomplish his signature move:
to get us to rebel against God in ways of disobedience that seem
reasonable and justified. When we make a
conscious decision to justify or excuse our disobedience, we make a conscious
decision to allow the enemy to do his work on us. Then after a while, things that should
horrify and repulse us, we are content and unconcerned about.
As Christians, we should have a revulsion in
our spirit towards sin because of the influence of God's Holy Spirit at work in
us. But over time, as we turn a deaf ear
to God's voice and refuse to surrender in obedience to the transforming work of
the Holy Spirit, we will eventually succumb to the influence of the devil's
work upon our flesh over God's work in our spirit. And even though certain sins may still make
us fretful or anxious, our enemy is able to easily consume us with distraction.
We end up in a state in which we are much more inclined to surrender to the
enemy, rather than surrender to God.
Scripture plainly tells us, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and
he will flee from you." (James 4:7). But far too many of us are submitting to the
enemy, instead of submitting to God.
Scripture tells us to "resist
the devil", but far too many of us are resisting God, instead of
resisting the enemy. We resist the enemy by submitting to God.
Not only are we called to defensive action by resisting the devil, we are also called to offensive action by standing against
him:
-"Put on the full armor of God, so that you
can take your stand against the
devil's schemes." (Eph 6:11)-"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.." (1 Pet 5:8,9)
The rest of the scripture at James 4:7 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near
to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded." (James 4:8).
This scripture is telling us to submit to God and resist the devil. To draw near to God and He will draw near
to you. To cleanse our lives of worldly things
that only serve as distractions to God's kingdom work. To purify our hearts with obedience to God and
His word, so that we will not be reaching out for Christ with one hand and
holding on to the world with the other.
Resist the enemy of your soul, get as far away from his work as you can, lest he make you numb to his schemes. Even a little bit is too much because it accumulates over time until you find yourself unconcerned, unbothered and content about things that we, as Christians, should find repulsive to our spirit.
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