The Cost
The Cost
… in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
(2 Corinthians 2:11)
Thought for the Day: How much will this really cost me?
It is so crucial that we understand the fight we are in for our health, our families, our attitudes, our marriages, our friendships, our journey toward freedom. Satan wants not just to discourage us but to destroy us. His attacks are not just willy-nilly attempts to trip us up or knock us down. He wants to take us out.
I have a fire in my belly about how crafty and strategic Satan really is. He has made me fighting mad recently, and I can’t help but address it.
Do you know why Satan’s tactics are called schemes (2 Corinthians 2:10 – 11)? A scheme is a plan, design, or program of action. Satan’s tactics are called schemes because they are well thought through plans specifically targeted to do three things:
1. To increase your desire for something outside the will of God.
2. To make you think giving in to a weakness is no big deal.
3. To minimize your ability to think through the consequences of falling to this temptation.
Oh how I wish we could see the cost of each of our choices as clearly as a price tag on store merchandise. Or as clearly as the caloric cost of food choices offered on menus in New York. (Did you know restaurants in New York are required to put nutritional information on their menus? Fabulous!) If I know how much something is going to cost me, I make much wiser choices.
Satan is a master of keeping that cost hidden until it’s too late.
Here’s how pastor and author Chip Ingram characterizes Satan’s schemes:
They are orchestrated in order to tempt us, deceive us, draw us away from God, fill our hearts with half-truths and untruths, and lure us into pursuing good things in the wrong way, at the wrong time, or with the wrong person. The English word strategies is derived from the Greek word Paul uses that is translated “schemes.” That means our temptations are not random. The false perspectives we encounter do not come at us haphazardly. The lies we hear, the conflicts we have with others, the cravings that consume us when we are at our weakest points — they are all part of a plan to make us casualties in the invisible war. They are organized, below-the-belt assaults designed to neutralize the very people God has filled with his awesome power.a
Sweet sisters, I think this is something worth thinking about.
How much will this really cost me? If we do nothing else this week but consistently apply this one question to every choice, we will have invested wisely. So, so very wisely.
Dear Lord, please help me to focus on You today and the perfect plan You have for my life. I am reminded that boldly following You is so much better than any short-term experience that is not pleasing to You. Give me Your eyes so that I can see temptation and its many different faces. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
a * Chip Ingram, The Invisible War (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 27.
From the book
