Prey For The One Who Is So Cunning

You spurn all who go away from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain.  Psalm 119:118

Can someone talk you out of doing the right thing?  Can they convince you of something you know isn’t true?  Perhaps they try to reinterpret your life every time you talk with them.  They are good with words and extremely clever with rationales.  You find yourself stuck when you want to defend your position.  This person is skilled at manipulating evil in such a way as to be admired for his cunning abilities.   They worship themselves and are ever looking for others to join them.

Only this world admires such people.  Their hero status will be short lived when the end of their life comes and their life is reviewed by a righteous God.  What appeared to be clever will be revealed as stupidity.

Such people are in our churches, even in our families.  The question to ask myself is this, “Am I prey for the cunning?”

•  Is there someone close to me who needs to control me, and are they artful and persistent until they succeed?
• Is there an issue about which I give in because I feel stupid against their cleverness?
•  If I reveal something about my life, is there a person who says, “That’s not how you should look at it.  That’s not how it happened.  That’s not how you feel.”
• If I feel passionately about something in the kingdom, can another’s words dilute my zeal and my resolve?

God leads His children simply.  He speaks, the cloud cover moves, and then we follow the light.  The rationales are usually clear cut, easy enough for a child to understand.  Evil is characterized by cobwebs.  Someone clever with speech, cunning enough to evade the truth, will come along to transform what is stunningly clear into something confusing.  The author of such arguments is the same one who filled Eve’s ears with enough rationales to make her second guess the voice of God.

Let me cut to the chase.  It’s a wake up call for any of us to admit that someone we know is a person who preys – and, even more, that we are their prey.  Once admitted, we can each take our stand and ask God to make us invulnerable and impenetrable.

You spoke.  I know the truth.  I stand in it.  I bear no “x” to mark me as prey.  Make me as spiritual steel.  Amen