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 Twelve Sure-Fire Ways to Wreck Our Faith Part 5 of 5 By: Dr. Skip Myers web posted February 25, 2008 COLUMNIST – At last we have arrived at numbers eleven and twelve in this series. I hope this list has served as a checklist for your faith. So many times we arrive at a place of spiritual wreckage and we’re not sure how we got there. In my life, I have found a majority of the time the answer can be found in one of the twelve elements we have discussed. It also helps to do whatever we can to avoid a wreck by placing a greater amount of focus on our relationship with the Lord. This way we don’t get blind-sided because we weren’t paying attention. #11: Defeat: “Never kick someone when they are down.” This is a great rule of life and compassion that the world could care less about. The way of this world has one rule of thumb: once it gets us down it wants to keep us down. Have you noticed that trouble seldom comes in single units? Where do you think the expression, “when it rains it pours” came from? If we can be made to believe that one defeat necessitates another then we could quite possibly spend a majority of our lives feeling defeated and dejected. A defeated life results from a cycle that is created through deception. It begins when we make a bad choice and allow our lives to be directed by our sin nature. Now, instead of correcting that choice and restoring the Lord’s leadership in our lives, we tend to go through the consequences alone and make more bad choices. This creates a downward spiral to our lives, spirits, and attitudes until we are utterly dejected and feel completely trapped. It is essential that we meet the challenges of life with our faith firmly focused on the Lord. Through Him, we gain wisdom and insights that allow us to follow a course that can bring about victory instead of defeat. We are not able to see all the possibilities a situation brings. All we see is the surface. Depth belongs to God. Through Him, we are given a hand up—strength to get on our feet and move towards Him. He will always enable what seems to be humanly impossible. Defeat is motionless while victory comes through movement. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 1 John 5:4 #12: Desire: Wanting is not necessarily a bad thing. It just depends on what you are wanting and what you are willing to do in order to get it. Desire is a two-sided emotion. On the one side, it provides for us the motivation to obtain the things that are truly good for us. The other side of desire occurs when our sin nature allows desire to be transformed into lust. Lust is desire controlled by sin. Such desire can take even the best-intentioned things of life turn them around. Let me illustrate. The desire to take care of our families becomes irresponsible materialism. Marital sexual desire becomes extramarital adultery or an addiction to pornography. The desire for nourishment becomes sensual overeating. Serving in the church becomes a platform for personal power. This is why the Bible speaks of keeping our desire for the Lord as the foundational desire of our lives. In doing this, we establish Him as a filter through which all other desire is cleansed. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death. James 1:14-15 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 There you have it, twelve ways to wreck, confuse, distract, and be defeated. Get to know the ones you are most susceptible to and learn the power of filling your mind with the truth of God’s Word. A mind filled with the Word is a powerful weapon against these twelve. I’ll see you Sunday. ©
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