A Month at the Beach in Winter: Preparing: Part VI

Someone once said to me, "I'm a little bit afraid to believe in God, because if I do, won't all hell break loose?"

Indeed, in this blog only a few days ago I too expressed concern that, based on scripture, the devil might come to meet me in the desert of my 30 day retreat by the sandy sea.

And then I thought, if the devil did come, what might it be like? What would he want to accomplish?

And it seemed to me that the thing he is after is not to scare me or hurt me or even end my life, but rather to befriend me, to speak softly to me, to cajole me into thinking and saying and doing something to separate me from the love of Christ.

He was even so brazen to quote scripture to Jesus in the desert!

When he whispers something in my ear, it may seem somewhat reasonable at first. But perhaps I have a misgiving at the same time. Listening further, perhaps I decide that the suggestion is a worthy cause or a noble idea...but is it coupled with an illicit way of reaching it? As my spiritual companion Ann once asked, "Did you bite into the apple and find the worm?!"

Human history has proven that the ends never justify the means. We must pursue good causes by right action. And then we can be sure that the "angel before us" is really one of God's good angels, and not some cheap imitation.

(Romans Chapter 8):
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What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
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As it is written:
“For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”
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No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.
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For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,
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nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen!
Ronda