God is sovereign.
The enemy just seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.
Steal hope, peace, and conviction...kill faith, devotion, and certainty (of belief, especially)...destroy diligence, love, and desire for obedience (even as unto obedience).
We are to be innocent of evil, not even needing truly to know its ways, so much as just to be able to recognize when more ardently to pray, seeking God more devoutly as not to be led astray, even turning away from temptation and distraction and unto God. Our Good Shepherd leads even in these things, unto deliverance and deeper conviction and greater faith.
Working in us to will and to do, even according to His good pleasure.
Image to image, glory to glory...transformed.
The attacks of recent have been very broad, yet concerted and no less insidious for being so broad.
It seems the temptations which are the most subtle are the ones which seek to most readily lead astray, into error--even if just as apathy.
Ultimately, the attacks of recent have basically amounted to another attempt to persuade a slowing of ardent desire for God, a tempering of devotion and desire, a mitigation of continued pursuit.
Along various lines.
It hadn't even become utterly apparent until wandering across something yesterday which mentioned that one of the standard tactics used is to convince or persuade the believer that there's no further cause for such diligent pursuit, that as much as has been experienced has been the pinnacle and there's no further such peak to attain, such that "wouldn't it be better to just be satisfied with what's already known, already undertaken, already experienced, already been given," as it surely would do no greater, continued good to continue such a fervent pace.
Even then given a multitude of reasons against such devotion. Fatigue, incapability of maintaining devotion at such a level of intensity, and even cajoling whatever lingers of self-preservation to assert itself in terms of tempting desire to refrain from perhaps entering into further trial.
That lattermost is one which has been entirely recurrent.
Alongside any prayer for greater faith, for deeper devotion, for unmeasured surrender...
...all known impossible, except that all things are possible for God...
...then, after such a desire has been continually expounded before the Lord...
...then seems to come an attempt to tempt to anxiety, in terms of "you don't even know what you're asking for--you have no idea what will be entailed...even as much as all the trials may have come before, then what more would be part of passing into such a thing as this?"
Reminders of loss, of uncertainty, of pain, of terror, of being in positions which were entirely impossible...and of how easily each one could have utterly fallen apart, had anything gone even a slight bit differently--had speech been even a bit different, had action varied even slightly...
...and there's a certain level of truth contained within those such temptations, which makes them all the more insidious...
...but they all fail to take account of who God is.
Period.
That no matter what would come...
...it doesn't matter...
...because the fact of the matter is that we are--each one of us--utterly incapable of overcoming and navigating through...
...and yet, He is wholly far more than capable of keeping us. Directing us.
He will keep us. He will be the one who navigates the deep waters. He will be the one who keeps the flame from resting upon us.
For, every time...
...every time...
...every time the enemy has come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord has raised a standard against him, driving him out violently as though driven out by the very breath of God.
He does this.
So, it doesn't matter that we don't know what we ask for, because He does. And if He has given to ask, then it is His will that we ask and continue to ask...even as it's His good pleasure to give us the kingdom, and does give the Holy Spirit to those who ask...
...then so also does He protect and guide and preserve us, even as we are refined in the fire. He refines us. For we will all be salted with fire.
The point is, though, those attempts to dissuade from continued, ardent pursuit of Christ are a lie.
He keeps all who are His. Period. And even as He calls us, He does justify us. Even unto sanctification, each according to His will.
So why be dissuaded? He is sovereign of all, and He is infinite and eternal, so the riches to be found in Him are without limit. There is no pinnacle which is the ultimate peak, but one unto the next--everlasting, progressive without end!
So, what nonsense is doubt! He can banish that as easily as the legion of the Gadarenes.
Because He is, and not only is He, but He is sovereign of all--regardless whether acknowledged or not, at present! He endures much with patience, perhaps, is all.
Allowing us, so oft, to merely have what we would choose to want...even instead of Him. Knowledge of Him entails far more a response than a mere nod, given what His existence implies unto creature beings. So what if many rebel? He knows and allows it, with far more grace and mercy and patience than even begins to be comprehensible.
But not always, is all.
He is sufficient unto all, though. Exceeding.
And no matter what temptations might come to any of us, He overcame and we are overcomers through Him, through Christ Jesus.
So, it should be an encouragement then, not an impediment in any way...to see that temptation would mount such a concerted attack. That God would be glorified as such temptation is overcome by an even greater desire for Him, to know Him and His ways and be wholly surrendered to His will. Regardless whether it makes sense, in the natural.
But for sake of who He is. Trusting. Loving. Being so loved. Desiring obedience even near as much as desiring Him.
All the more, these things desired...for having endured temptation which would again seek to dissuade from continuation.
We all encounter this, these temptations...in varied ways. Recognizing them can help one see the need to then and immediately draw nearer to God.
Even as that could ought be a continual process, nonetheless.
One thing I lament, of the past many months...
...I've been so slack in communicating with Him.
Prayer, yes. Talking at Him.
Spending time silently in His presence.
Spending time studying His word.
Learning of Him.
Fellowshipping with those who also know Him.
But not communing with Him, fellowshipping with Him, so much.
I miss that sorely, yet seem powerless even to correct it.
Prayer continues.
He knows.
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