Oftentimes Satan doesn’t walk around with red horns and a pitchfork like we imagine him. If you have seen old movies with the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other we, in a way, still have this image of him. 2 Corinthians 11:14b says, Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
He looks good, enticing, maybe even motivational in his approach but his hope is to subtly throw you off track until you can’t tell what track you are supposed to be on.
I want you to imagine a hike as you are walking along everything looks beautiful, the trees are tall, the air is crisp the birds are singing. You are headed upwards to a scenic area to look down at the view of the land below. As you are nearing the peak of the mountain you realize that your shoe is untied. Naturally, because you don’t want to slip while on a hike, you reach down and tie your shoe. But what you didn’t realize was the very moment you leaned down to tie your shoe was the same moment that caused you to topple off balance and slide and skid until you almost fell down the edge of the mountain.
Satan works a little like this. He makes you think that in a moment of time, as you are walking along enjoying the view that you need to tie your shoe. It’s a good thing to keep your shoes tied especially on a hike but he keeps you from seeing the bigger picture and noticing that the action of tying your shoe was going to cause you to lose your balance and fall because there was slippery gravel beneath your feet.
He generally is not distracting us with something noticeable or obvious. If there was a giant hole in the ground we would have detoured around it and tied our shoe elsewhere. Similar to sin in our lives it starts out subtle. One little thing creeps in until it is a full blown sin.
Also the desire doesn’t always start out as a bad intention either. I desire to feel relaxed so I am going to have a glass of wine… and then the bottle. I’m going to text my ex because I’m bored…. it’s not a big deal it won’t lead to anything? I know this tv show is full of sex…. but it makes me feel good and helps me enjoy something I’m not being fulfilled in? It’s not like I’m the one participating in it.
Satan in the garden said you surely will not die, you will be like God and know the difference between good an evil. I mean those sound like good things. I don’t want to die and I should be discerning between good and evil, right?
But Adam and Eve did not see the bigger picture and consequence of their actions. They didn’t realize ‘tying their shoe’ so to speak, doing something they thought was better for them, would lead them to fall completely in direct rebellion and disobedience to God.
One of the not so obvious distractions I want to talk about in this post is the sin of buying into the Me-culture. I want to take one simple phrase and show you how it has been skewed and taken out of God’s hands and paraphrased into a world view straight from the master of deceit.
This phrase is: You are Enough. This is a slick phrase that is definitely from a crafty creature.
Wow that sounds great. I’m enough. I can fulfill my needs, I can provide for myself, I can pick myself off and dust off the hurt and pain. I can fight harder. I can achieve great things. I don’t need anyone or anything. I am enough.
First the emphasis is on I, me, you. This phrase sounds a little like when Satan said you surely will not die…he twisted one word. God said you surely will die and Satan said you surely will not die. A direct contradiction.
You are enough is a lie taken from a truth. And that is the trickiest part of this lie. It is not a blatant obvious lie. If I hit your car in a parking lot and then said ‘no I didn’t’ but a camera has me on tape. That is a blatant lie. If I say I didn’t eat the rest of the fudge icecream but I have chocolate on my face, icecream in a bowl and there is an empty carton in the trash that is a blatant lie. But a lie that comes from a truth is hard to discern. A lie that comes from a truth takes something that is inherently and maybe even a God given truth and makes it seem like it is a good idea, a noble idea, a new right way of thinking.
This statement, you are enough, is a lie that comes from a truth. How can that be and what does that mean? As my husband would say “I’m glad you asked”.
Well you are enough ONLY because you are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. You are enough ONLY because you are created for a purpose. You are enough ONLY because God gave you your body and soul. But the statement that says you are enough, by itself, with a follow up of ‘ now go and fulfill your own dreams’ ‘go and fulfill the emptiness in your heart’ ‘go and find the love you deserve’. The lie is actually telling you that you are your own god without saying it outloud. It is saying you don’t need God, you don’t need a Savior, you don’t need God’s companionship, you don’t need God’s support, you don’t need God’s guidance, you don’t need God’s love, you don’t need God’s gift of salvation. You don’t need God’s comfort, love mercy or grace. In this one simple phrase you have become your own god, you can fulfill all your needs by yourself because you are enough. And friend, there are big lies out there but this is one of the biggest.
This lie removes the love God has for you away. It removes His promises about you away. And worst of all it takes your need for a savior away. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:23-24.
Satan is shouting this lie loudly because if you believe this one lie you will think you can accomplish your own salvation in this world and friend, you can’t.
The exact thing Satan said wouldn’t happen- did happen, and Adam and Eve died and did not become like God. And believing You are enough won’t make you your own god, it will simply distract you so Satan can convince you that you are just tying your shoe and then He will try to push you off the cliff.
Can you keep your heart beating? Can you keep your mind thinking? Can you cause your stomach to digest food or your liver to process toxins? And can you do this all simultaneously while making coffee and chewing a piece of gum? You can’t. And neither can I. We are not enough in our own power to keep our physical beings alive and we are not enough emotionally to keep ourselves spiritually alive. In fact, by ourselves in our own power, we would not even exist because we were created by God and knit together in our mothers wombs. We had no part in that.
The good news is Christ is enough!! He is the only one who can fill the hole in your heart. He is only one that comes to fill your need for love, your need for peace and your need for purpose. The hole in your heart is not something you can fill by yourself which is why if you have fallen for this lie, you are reading this and you still don’t feel complete or you are still searching for something to fulfill you. The hole you have is ONLY healed by Christ.
He created you and He already thinks you’re worth it. You don’t have to sit there and wonder if you are enough…. He already said you were made in his image. He already said He loves you. And at the end of the day, or the end of this life, what type of enough matters? Is it the enough that looks you back in the mirror and tells you to hold your head high and get through the day..or is it an enough that says my death on the cross was enough to save you from falling off the cliff. My death on the cross and resurrection was all you need to be emotionally and spiritually healed. When you put your faith in God and believe Jesus has paid for your sin on the cross you will never have to strive anymore trying to figure out how to be enough on your own.
You live move and have your being because of Him. He loves you and He does not expect you to do this life on your own and He certainly doesn’t want you to be your own god. Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26
Jesus is coming again much sooner than two thousand years ago. He is coming and He wants you to be in Heaven with him. Lay down your view of yourself and take up a life in Christ. Because He is the Savior of the world. He is the Enough that you are longing for.
The Lord Bless you and Keep you,
Kara
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