I’m pondering this morning how American society has too often taught us not to treasure the privileges we enjoy and be thankful for them but to demand them as our right. We excuse pride and selfish behavior and even our own sin by claiming it’s our “right” to do or say something. “I have a right to be happy.” But God calls us to a different way of life. He calls us to submit, first to Him, then to other believers and to governing authorities. God calls us to give up our rights and to live a life of humility and service.
I’m reminded of something I was told recently by a woman who has traveled to countries hostile to the message of Christ. In one of those countries she was told by a believer, “We pray for Christians in America. Here, we know who the enemy is. [the secret police who could knock on their doors at any moment and haul them away; their neighbors who might report their “illegal” activities, such as reading a Bible; etc.] But you don’t see or know your enemy.”
How amazing and how sad that the persecuted church would know this about us! The enemy, of course, is our way of thinking. It’s so subtle, so unseen. We can’t point at a uniform and say, “There is the enemy.” So we buy into all sorts of half-truths and outright lies because we’re comfortable with them. We make excuses for ourselves because “everybody does it” or “it isn’t as bad as what so-and-so does.”
I yearn to know real truth in my life. I want it to go deep inside of me. I want it to drive all of that wrong thinking and those wrong attitudes from their dark and sneaky corners in my mind and heart. I don’t want to fool myself nor to be fooled by others.
Today, my prayer is that I would know Truth and that I would then be given the adequate words to share it with others, both in my writing and in my speaking.
-rlh-
5:43 a.m. – 2002-07-29
