Confidence in God

It is for a fact that the Christian life is a hard one in many respects. People tease us, mock us, and sometimes even intentionally tempt us. It seems that the more we battle with the children of this world, the greater the battle rages and the more fatigued we become. It seems sometimes that our best efforts are fruitless and that all is without hope. It is at these times that we should stop to consider and remember that there are two spiritual fathers; One is God and the other is Satan. Just as the children of Isaac and Ishmael battled; Just as the children of Jacob and Esau battled; So must the children of Righteousness and Evil battle. This is just the way that it is, always has been, and will be until time is ushered out and eternity stands alone.

In all truth, those that are outside Christ are our blood enemies. We have no fellowship or agreement with them. Well did Amos say “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) This very point was stressed by our Lord when He said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

Paul draws on this concept when he states, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of devils.” (I Cor. 10:21) Paul understood, just as God’s children throughout time have always understood, that there is a dividing line between our family and that of the family of Satan.

Now this poses numerous problems which the Christian has to sort through. One such problem is the responsibility of the Christian to love those that are in the family of Satan. One of the hardest commands to truly follow is given by Christ when he states in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love our enemies. This goes against everything our humanity would have us to believe and practice. To do this violates our natural will. But it is the very thing we must do in order to be in the family of God. It makes no difference to God that this task is hard. He simply expects us to obey.

It seems, however, that trying to obey this command often gets us into trouble. In trying to be lovers of those that are outside Christ we sometimes go overboard and become not only concerned about them, we often become partakers in their life-style. Humans, such as we are, tend to over compensate when dealing with problems. Many have over compensated when dealing with those outside Christ and have joined them on the outside. This we must never do.

Just when we seem to have reached some balance between our responsibility to care for the lost and yet not become involved with them on a sinful basis our second adversary arises, our own brothers and sisters. Often they criticize our “harsh lines” and try to persuade us to mellow and not be so critical of sin as practiced by those on the outside. If we have not been careful and have put our faith in these brethren rather than in our Father, we can be quickly persuaded that our dedication to spiritual purity is nothing more than a radical spirit or a holier-than-thou attitude on our part. If this should happen, spiritual disaster is sure to follow.

Faith in our brethren can be a disaster in itself. If we put faith in the wrong source, then we have no base from which to draw strength. If our brethren should prove to have feet of clay and should fail to stand fast, we might also be led away by their dissimulation. (Gal. 2:11-13)

It could be, however, that our greatest enemy is in reality ourselves. We might be able to avoid putting our faith in others. But nearly all of us like to put our faith in ourselves. We might want to deny this but it is nevertheless true. We like to believe that we can stand on our own abilities. But in allowing ourselves to think this way, we become prime targets for Satan and his forces. Well did Paul state the matter when he wrote, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (I Cor 10:12)

Whenever I was just a little boy, I believed my father could do anything. Once, when I was around six years old, my father took me to the wrestling matches. Everything was fine until I became tired and wanted to go to sleep. I asked my father to make everyone be quiet but he would not. I did not understand then that he couldn’t do it because I believed that he could do anything. As I grew up I learned that he had severe limitations. But the thing that is important is the faith I had in him when I was young and dependent. Oh, if only we could have this sort of faith in the Father that CAN do anything!

I feel the need to stress here that our greatest enemy at this stage of our spiritual growth is our improper placing of our faith in others or in ourselves rather than in the Father. If our faith is not properly grounded then we will not stand when sin launches its assaults against us. Our faith MUST be in the Creator.

Problems arise in the lives of all God’s creatures. Whether one has faith or not, temptation fills every day of everyone on this earth. We, as the children of God, have the assurance of God that He will hold us up so that we will not fall. (John 10:27-29) Our Father is our strength. We must learn that in order to survive. We must count upon Him for our deliverance. As we grow, we must let Him guide us and fill us and possess us. He becomes not only our strength, He becomes our very character as our will is replaced by His own. One can never be truly a member of the family of God until he allows God to take complete charge of his life and actions. We must sacrifice ourselves to Him and die to sin in order to live as His children and in His household. (Romans 6:1-6, 12:1-2)

In Matthew 7:21 we learn from Jesus that we must do the will of the Father in order to be allowed into His kingdom. Salvation is our reward for obedience to God’s commands and is given freely by grace to those whom God has chosen. God becomes our father because He chooses to do so and He bases His choice on our turning ourselves over completely to His will as an obedient child.

I would like to close this section of our study with an observation. There is a song we sometimes teach our children that goes something like this:

The devil is a sly old fox.
I’d like to catch his and put him in a box
And lock the lid and throw away the key
For all the dirty tricks that he’s played on me.

I must confess that this song scares me. I am afraid that it teaches our children that we have some power over Satan and that we can withstand him. This is utterly foolish. All we need to do is read Jude where he states, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” (Jude 9)

There is absolutely no way apart from God’s strength and support that we can stand up to Satan. He has power that is far greater than us and without our Father we have no hope. But God can, and on behalf of His children, will overcome Satan. He has done so every time they have met in battle and always will. Where we cannot protect ourselves, our Father can and will. But in order for us to stand, we must do so behind our Father, allowing Him to protect us from the father of all unrighteousness. Just as we would protect our physical children from harm, God will protect us, for He is the greatest and strongest Father of all.