Hold not your peace, oh God of my praise. Psalms 109:1
Has the Word of God ever tormented you? Conviction is one thing; torment is altogether different. God is not a tormentor, and yet, when it’s the Word of God that appears to eat at my soul, it can do tricks on my spiritual view of God.
This is where I need to remember how cunning Satan is. Paul warned, “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Cor 11:3 That verse provides a litmus test. The Word, when interpreted by the Spirit, draws me toward Jesus. Even when it exposes something painful, I find myself still wanting to come closer. Conviction may make me weep, but it does not make Christ frightening.
Satan works differently. He quoted Scripture to Jesus in the wilderness. He can take something true, detach it from God’s character, connect it to an old wound, and make the resulting conclusion feel almost holy. The deception is powerful because pieces of it are true.
How do I recognize the difference? I watch what it does to my relationship with Christ. If I begin backing away, becoming shy with Him, doubting His affection, or feeling that I should hide until I improve, something is wrong. The Holy Spirit exposes sin in order to restore intimacy. The accuser exposes weakness in order to destroy it.
For years, Satan trapped me by joining two biblical truths together. 1.) God loves me just as I am. And, 2.) God’s will is for me is to become more like Jesus. Both are gloriously true. But the lie slipped quietly between them: How can God really love me as I am now if He intends to spend my entire life changing me?
That distortion poisoned intimacy. I concluded that God must love some future, improved version of me more than He loved the woman standing before Him now. I could trust His affection only on days when I felt Christlike. Do you see the trap? Sanctification is not a long project to make me finally lovable. Sanctification is what His love begins to do in someone He already loves. That changes everything. I’m wary of a truth that has been severed from grace, twisted by shame, or interpreted through an old wound.
When Scripture seems to make Jesus less beautiful, or less approachable, I go hunting for the lie hidden beside the truth.
Lord, expose every place where Your Word has been twisted into something You never meant it to say. Amen.
