Why Should I Listen to You?

Suggested Reading: Exodus 2:1-15

I love politics but I hate talking about it with other people. I am very opinionated and I don't deal well with intellectual dishonesty when I think it exists. One of my biggest pet peeves, when having a discussion with someone who has been shown to have their facts wrong, is the response,  "Well, your side acts just like my side" in an attempt to dismiss the facts by discrediting the messenger. The tendency to avoid the message by focusing on the messenger is not new or limited to politics. There is an excellent example in the book of Exodus.

In Exodus 2, Moses encounters two Israelites fighting. Moses asks the one in the wrong, "Why are you attacking your neighbor?" But instead of dealing with the issue, the one in the wrong asks, "Who are you? Are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian the other day?" (Exodus 2:13-14, HCSB). Now, Moses had, in fact, killed an Egyptian while defending an Israelite a few days before but that is really irrelevant for the wrong-doer in this case. This man was attacking his neighbor and was called on it. His response was to discredit Moses rather than deal honestly with the situation. 

The attacker's reaction is actually very normal. Human beings, by nature,  try to avoid the truth at all costs and, if we have to belittle, discredit, or attack someone else to avoid dealing with the truth, then we will do it.  We've all done it. Our spouse shares a concern about our behavior and we lash out by listing all of their faults instead of dealing with the issue. Our friends tell us that we are acting selfishly, so we go through a litany of every time they have acted selfishly. The preacher's sermon on integrity convicts us so we think about all of the corrupt people that we know or nitpick the preacher's life to make ourselves feel better.

The only problem with this strategy is that we never deal with the issues in our lives, so we never grow. Often, we move backwards because we have justified our behavior, and we allow ourselves to slip a little farther.  We choose to live in darkness rather than walk in the light of truth, exposed and vulnerable, yet able to grow.  1 John 1:5-8 tells us that fellowship with God requires that we walk in the light. We cannot grow or conquer the sin in our lives if we refuse to face the truth. And we cannot wait for the perfect messenger before finally listening to the message. 

When we face criticism or loving concern, are we able to look past the messenger to the message? Or do we know  that the criticism is true and avoid it by discrediting its source? The next time you find yourself going through the list of everything someone has done wrong, ask yourself "Why?". Is there something you're avoiding? If so, take courage, breath a deep breath, and step into the light of truth. It will set you free.

Racing Through Life Like a Phantom Menace

Suggested Reading: 1 Peter 5:5-11

Before the current slate of Star Wars sequels LucasFilms released the Star Wars prequels, beginning with The Phantom Menace. Depending on whom you ask, one of the most loved or hated scenes in the movie is when Anakin Skywalker, a very young boy competes in and wins a hi-tech car race. Throughout the course of the race the various contestants do their best to knock out the competition through various methods of cheating and sabotaging other vehicles. On top of that, there are sand men poised with guns to try to shoot the racers out of the sky as they zoom past. Anyone in the race has to deal with all of these elements and they aren't only trying to get to the finish line first, they are trying to survive all of the attacks being thrown at them.

Sometimes, the Christian life is a lot like that race. We are racing along, trying to get to the finish line, and then -- whack! -- someone hits us with an attack! Someone sideswipes us with an untrue accusation. We get smacked upside the head with a problem we didn't see coming. Someone cuts our feet out from under us by jumping to conclusions before they have all the facts. We are doing our best, not trying to hurt anyone else, just trying to make it to the finish line in one piece and, every time we turn around, someone hits us from another angle, some unexpected problem pops up and threatens all of our efforts. We begin to feel like, at any moment, the wheels could fall off and we will end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, all alone. And we are scared that if that happens then we aren't going to have the strength to keep going, that we'll just give up and quit.

The bad news? You're not imagining things. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (NIV). We do have an enemy whose goal is to derail us. The enemy's goal is to get us to quit trying, to give up and walk away. And the enemy is going to use everything in his arsenal against us, trying to make us stumble, to get us frustrated so we decide that this life is simply not worth the effort, to give up and let him win.

The good news? The next two verses add, "Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:9-10, NIV).

Did you catch that? Not only is it possible to endure, but you are not alone in your struggles. No matter how much it feels like you are the only one going through all of these things, you're not. "Your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." The enemy wants you to think you are alone. He wants you to think that you are all by yourself and there is no one to help. And that is a lie. What is more, God promises that even if you stumble, that is not the end of the story. "Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

God did not get your attention and call you to His side so that he could let you fail. God did not send His Son to earth to die in your place so that you could live a defeated life as the enemy laughs in triumph. Resist the enemy, and God promises that the enemy will flee from us (James 4:7) because God has not given us "a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7. KJV).

With the Spirit of God living in you, you are stronger than you think you are. You can not only survive the enemy's attacks, but you can make him flee. Never give up. Never surrender. You are not alone.