Like a grain of sand under your big toe, more subtle temptations can do damage to our spirit over the long haul. They seem less heroic to overcome than the dirty dozen, or seven deadly sins, but don’t let that fool you. Satan will try all schemes necessary, gloves off and no holds barred to trip us up. He knows the enormity of what’s in the balance. I wonder, do you?
These deceptions have to do with the Bible, and the enemy wants us to entertain them, because if he succeeds, we won’t have fight left to face him when the stakes are much higher. They are designed to pull us away from:
a firm belief that the Book is alive, and
a firm belief that love is found in the tender mercies of its pages.
Our Adversary will whisper half-truths and innuendo, bringing a twinge of doubt to our minds over why this book is different than any other. He will also keep us tarried and toiling, totally out of sync and restless, so that we can not discover the depth of the love found there. If he succeeds in diverting our spiritual energy from understanding these, then he has successfully undermined our faith.
Living Letters. Depth of Love.
All other voices will promise change until they stand up against the living nature of this book. All other loves will tantalize until these pages remind us of the real McCoy.
All too often we turn away from the pages that beckon us, because we have done our arithmetic, and judged that the day’s demands won’t allow a sitting before it’s love and life. The subtlest temptation of all begins with a suggestion, and ends with a lie. The suggestion is that we don’t need another story from it’s pages, and the lie is that we are loved only to an extent anyway, so why bother to plumb the depths of it’s pages looking for more. The cost to us is a daily neglect of a living book that wants to change, rearrange and tighten the coils of our mainspring of faith, so that when He says to obey, we can leap into action.
Thirty-four years ago I fell in love. And I’ve been reading love letters ever since. My heart’s been changed by His living word, and my love grown as year after year we walk together. His book is alive, and Love dwells there to be captured by. Why not find your favorite Bible right now, hold it up your chest, and whisper, ‘Living Letters teach me love.’