The Arrogance of the Experienced

Good Monday morning! It's raining! What a pleasant surprise to wake up to this morning. Rains at this time of the year can be a bit on the cool side though. Dangerous times in the neighborhood: the young man across the street just got his first vehicle to go with his new driver's license. Time to keep off the streets for a while!

We joke about first time drivers, but often we neglect the arrogance of the experienced. Some of us get in a mode of driving where we think we have it all under control. Statistics do help with that as fewer accidents happen with drivers of a certain age range. However we should never get so comfortable in our driving that we fail to remain alert and responsible. Our Christian walk can be much the same way. We get a little experience, we learn some of the Bible, and we start to get accustomed to the beauty of God's saving grace and begin setting aside any thought of our own goodness. We can also start to get over-confident or even prideful in our 'look how far I've come' assessment of our own condition. We need God's grace every step of our Christian life until God brings us home. We need His mercy and forgiveness. And we need above all to remember that we have an Adversary who very much wishes our downfall.

Yesterday, I heard a pastor give a rundown of what a comical figure Satan has become to our modern world. We should not believe any of that for a second. An over-confident Christian is ripe for the plucking, and our enemy is just the one to do it. We must have confidence in our Lord and His Holy Spirit, but we should never be over-confident in any ability we possess (or just think we possess). You might say that we can get so confident that we neglect to put on the breastplate of righteousness one morning and stick our own big chest out instead. Just what the Devil is looking for too, and he will shoot a few arrows right into that over-confident breast of ours and drop us right to the ground.

The strength of any Christian is no match for the Devil and his demons. The strength of God is more than enough. Which one we choose to abide in is, of course, ours to choose. I think that we might just want to abide in our Lord and count on His mighty strength to shield us. I know that my strength is never enough. Now to remember that all the time instead of after the Adversary has brought me low again and again.

Praise the Lord for the new day!
Bucky