Defeating the Foe Within
As Christians, the Bible tells us to examine ourselves. But we’re not very good at it. Our sins and annoying habits are perfectly clear to our family and friends. But not to us. So I’ve created a 5-point checklist to help us see the true condition our hearts.
A Key Warning
When we feel intense anger at what people are doing, our minds should go on high alert. Because we’re each sitting at the top of a slide that the Devil has greased. It’s very slippery. The downward journey often begins slowly but then quickly picks up speed.
There’s nothing more destructive to a Christian’s walk with Jesus than unchecked rage. Even if the cause firing up the believer is righteous. Corruption in government. Racial injustice. Sex trafficking. Destruction of innocent lives. Unjust persecution.
The Lord wants to lead us to get involved in the fight against evil, helping to bring about righteous, life-changing solutions.
But the Devil wants us to start hating.
I’ll use this natural water slide in Germany to illustrate my point.
Everyone is perfectly safe standing at the top. But once a person chooses to enter the waterfall, the force of the water takes over.
Here’s how our downward journey starts. First, we clump the people we’re angry at into a single metaphorical “box.” This is a very dangerous step. Because immediately we start slapping condemning labels on the outside of that box. Then we start negatively pre-judging every person in that group, whether they deserve it or not. Emotionally, every person within that group has now become our enemy.
And the Prince of Peace, who we used to follow? He’s out of sight in our rear-view mirror.
When Christians Hate
Hate bears awful fruit—our hearts start to despise others. We look at people Jesus died to save as worthless “human trash.” Satan delights in this. We become guilty of the very sin we condemn in others; bigotry and prejudice. Having this hidden sin warps our Christ-like nature, turning it into something ugly.
Sometimes we’re blind to our own bigotry. But believe me, the people we prejudiced against can see it clearly.
The Heart’s Secrets Exposed
Here’s some clear ways to tell if prejudice, bigotry or racism has taken root in the human heart. I call it:
My 5 Symptoms of Hidden Prejudice:
The 1st symptom I’ve already mentioned. Shove the whole group into a box and cover the outside with negative labels and accusations.
Here are the 5 remaining symptoms:
2. Refuse to see these people as individuals with unique life experiences, which would cause each one to respond to events in their own way.
3. View all the people in this group as 100% bad. Their motives are always corrupt, greedy or selfish. No exceptions.
4. Get angry when hearing a true story about any man, woman or child within the group doing anything good, kind, generous or admirable.
5. Become intensely irritated when other people speak up in this group’s defense—usually in response to the prejudice, which they clearly see.
What’s the Cure?
Follow believer, is there a group of people that you hate, loath and despise?
If any one of these 6 symptoms are true of you, your walk with Jesus has probably been severally damaged.
But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (I John 2:11 RSV)
How do we get free of the twin diseases of hate and prejudice?
These God-given Techniques Work
Let me share some of the spiritual techniques I use: Last week I revealed what “flesh-burners” are. All 3 of these are flesh-burners. I start doing these immediately, when I first get offended.
Because hatred, bitterness, bigotry and contempt are much harder to fight, I block those emotional sins from taking root in my heart.
I Pray FOR my Enemies—Not Against Them (Matthew 5:44) I begin to do this during the anger stage, before I start sliding downward toward the Devil’s playground. I can’t regularly bless people with persistent loving prayers without my heart starting to soften toward them.
I Repeatedly Put Out my Anger’s Fire. After being wronged, I try not to complain about how badly I had been treated, I also choose not to keep “rehearsing my wrong” in my mind. This step is critical for me. If I fail, then my fury hardens until it becomes “set in concrete.”
I “Take Every Thought Captive.” (2 Corinthians 10:5) When someone wounds me, the memory of that wrong can keep re-surfacing in my mind, as my hurt emotions continue to bring it up, So I simply start praying blessing on the person or people who hurt me. This frustrates all the Devil’s schemes and delights Jesus.
These are the ways I use to keep my heart clean.
What are yours?
The images came from Pixabay.com.
