How important are our intentions? Does it matter why we do good things? If we are Christians and doing what we believe is God-pleasing, isn't that all that matters? Or is that one of the ploys of Satan? John Piper points out in his article "Don't Go Back From Sonship to Slavery" that Satan often uses morality in the form of self-righteousness as a tool in the war against us..................
Satan does not care if you try to keep the ten commandments, provided that you take the credit for keeping them. In fact, he will assist your moral resolve if you will do it that way. Satan does not mind if you come to church, or teach Sunday School, or preach, or work for the freeze, or lobby for a human life bill, or seek prayer in the schools—he's all in favor of whatever your moral agenda is, provided you rely on yourself instead of the Spirit of Christ and take credit for it yourself instead of humbly giving all glory to God. So do not be unprepared. Our adversary has a clever scheme by which he aims to ruin us and the church.
I know I fall into this category often. Perhaps it's a weakness found in western culture - particularly this country. After all, we just celebrated Independence Day, did we not? We give high esteem to independence - as a country, as a society, as individuals. "Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is a saying certainly revered in western culture. Feminism was undoubtedly a program started by Satan. But contrary to contemporary belief, it wasn't started back in the 1960's by Gloria Steinem. It was started in the Garden of Eden by the 'serpent of old'(Rev 12:9). We can make decisions on our own, live life on our own, do good deeds on our own, and as long as we are "good," God shall be pleased with us. Except we forget we cannot be "good." Not on our own. We can do good deeds, say nice things and look good to others, but when compared to God, we will never be good. Satan will have us believe otherwise and so we must be careful not to fall into his trap. ALL the credit goes to the One who gave His life for us. And without His blood covering us, we are only filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Thank you, Jesus.
Satan does not care if you try to keep the ten commandments, provided that you take the credit for keeping them. In fact, he will assist your moral resolve if you will do it that way. Satan does not mind if you come to church, or teach Sunday School, or preach, or work for the freeze, or lobby for a human life bill, or seek prayer in the schools—he's all in favor of whatever your moral agenda is, provided you rely on yourself instead of the Spirit of Christ and take credit for it yourself instead of humbly giving all glory to God. So do not be unprepared. Our adversary has a clever scheme by which he aims to ruin us and the church.
I know I fall into this category often. Perhaps it's a weakness found in western culture - particularly this country. After all, we just celebrated Independence Day, did we not? We give high esteem to independence - as a country, as a society, as individuals. "Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is a saying certainly revered in western culture. Feminism was undoubtedly a program started by Satan. But contrary to contemporary belief, it wasn't started back in the 1960's by Gloria Steinem. It was started in the Garden of Eden by the 'serpent of old'(Rev 12:9). We can make decisions on our own, live life on our own, do good deeds on our own, and as long as we are "good," God shall be pleased with us. Except we forget we cannot be "good." Not on our own. We can do good deeds, say nice things and look good to others, but when compared to God, we will never be good. Satan will have us believe otherwise and so we must be careful not to fall into his trap. ALL the credit goes to the One who gave His life for us. And without His blood covering us, we are only filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you for posting this! I think sometimes we can get wrapped up in feeling good about ourselves after serving, and those feelings of pride and accomplishment are so strong. It is easy to continue the cycle, and then wind up completely leaving God out of the equation- then what's the point of doing all this stuff anyway? Good reminder.
ReplyDeleteSo true! We must remember that ALL the glory goes to Him. Without Him it means nothing and we are nothing. I know I struggle constantly with my desire to do things my way, knowing all the time that His way is better. Thank God He never gives up on us!!!
ReplyDelete