So I would like to hear from people on this...
How do you know the difference between tests from God and attacks from Satan? I mean, some of them are quite obvious...like when God puts someone in our lives and asks us to show them His love in specific ways - we know He's rooting for us to take the test and pass. Or when everyone in the family is fighting about nothing and there's strong discord - it's pretty obvious it's not from God.
But what about the "small" stuff. Like our van being written off over a dent that could be repaired. (I won't go into detail, but it wasn't me!) We're searching our hearts to know if God is telling us to hold our possessions a little more loose than we have been, or to fight the insurance company for our rights and resist the Enemy destroying our things. I guess there's no saying we can't do both.
Daryl and I both know that it's easy for us to start putting high value on our "stuff" (like I think we all can do), and we forget that it's God's, ultimately.
I'm so glad that we are never asked to reach a balanced life and have everything figured out - it's like walking across a stream on stepping stones and balancing as we go. We won't reach the other side until heaven, and we will always be balancing as we go, learning all the time.
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3 comments:
When I'm unsure, I try to hear God's side of things. Like the van thing, it could be either, but most of all I think we need to keep asking God what He wants us to learn from things like this. I think it's easy to give Satan credit when he doesn't "deserve" any. God's more interested in our growth process then the actual outcome in events like those you described, eh? love ya, Mom
i hope you get some discussion here...i don't feel like i have much to contribute, except to say that i think that making prayer an ongoing thing throughout the day will help to clarify some of that stuff. i'm trying to practise that, and it makes me feel more aware of spiritual things.
I appreciated your thought provoking questions. There are a lot of things in life we do not fully understand. But some things we do know that satan is real and we continually battle against the spirit and the flesh.
I like this quote from Ruth Graham Bell "Temptations and Trials"
Temptation and testing{or trials} are two sides of the same coin.
Satan uses an occassion or a person to tempt us to fall; God uses the same to try us and make us stronger.
So when going through adversity whatever the contributing circumstances may be, I do try and remind myself of James 1:2-3 to "Consider it pure joy, whenever we face trials of many kinds. Perserverance must finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything!" Wow! How often I know I fail to count my trials with PURE JOY, particularly those days when those closest to me can just be so down right irratating!!
Still learning, still growing!
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