During the final week of the Race as I began to reflect and think about all the things that I learned these past 11 months, I realized it all boils down to this one scripture that Jesus says:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” – John 10:10 NIV
Another translation, the Amplified Bible, puts it this way,
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]”.
Throughout the Race, I have seen, experienced and gained a greater understanding and awareness of both these statements.
Since the beginning, one of my teammate’s common remarks that ended up catching on to the entire squad is that “Satan is a nug.” Meaning, he is a sly son of a you know what.
The enemy is not stupid and his attacks are not random or unsystematic. He studies each and every one of us. He knows our habits, tendencies, appetites, fears and weaknesses, and he uses them against us with careful strategy and tactics.
The two biggest areas that I’ve come to realize that Satan likes to attack in my life (and most likely in yours too) is number one my identity in Christ and two God’s goodness.
In Bill Johnson’s novel, “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind,” he noted that the single oldest temptation in the Bible is to question our identity and God’s identity.
He points out that the very first temptation in the Bible was NOT about not eating the forbidden fruit. Rather when the serpent said, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1b) what he was really tempting them with was doubting God’s integrity and identity. Once he did, it was easy to entice them into foolish actions.
Bill Johnson noted, “In the same way, before the devil tempted Jesus with anything else, he tried to pry him away from His identity: “If You are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:6). He wanted Jesus to doubt His identity – so what is the devil’s strategy with you and me? The same thing!”
He knows that when we understand who we are, nothing will shake us and we become unstoppable.
To quote Lisa Bevere, “The attacks on your life have much more to do with who you might be in the future than who you have been in the past. The enemy fears you becoming who God has made you to be.”
When we understand who we are, we take and use our spiritual authority that Jesus gave us and as a result the devil loses his power and control. (And he don’t like that!)
Therefore, the enemy constantly feeds us lies about who we are and tries to convince us that we’re defined by our actions. He wants us to believe that we are still our old selves, sinners. His goal is to magnify our insecurities to lead us to doubt what God says about us and to disregard what He’s given us. He doesn’t want us to know that we have the Spirit of the living God inside of us. The same Spirit that dwelled within Jesus who did wonders and miracles and rose him from the dead.
If the enemy can get us to doubt who God says we are, then this implies that we don’t believe God fully or take him at His Word. If we don’t believe God fully, then we can’t trust God completely. If we don’t trust God completely, we will hesitate to follow him. We will question whether He truly has our best interests at heart leading us to take control of our own lives and do what we think is best. We won’t depend on God but rather ourselves.
On the other hand, if we believe that God is always good, we will always have hope and expect Him to do good things for us. We will trust and praise Him even when we go through hardships, knowing that He is working out all things for our good. (Romans 8:28). We will always step out in faith knowing God is always with us and for us and never against us (Romans 8:31-32).
I recently listened to a sermon by Pastor Jamey, a pastor from MN that my team met and learned from in Penang, Malaysia, about trusting that God is for us and walking in thankfulness for His goodness.
In Pastor Jamey’s message, the Holy Spirit convicted me that in my attempts to see God as always good (because that’s what the Bible says), I often try to work through the idea that God can be somewhere in a broken or painful situation. For example, if someone were to get cancer, I would try to figure out how God is somewhere in the midst of the cancer. I believed common sayings I heard such as, “Well God must know that you are strong enough to let you go through this” or “He must be teaching you something through the midst of this” or “God has a reason…” etc.
But Pastor Jamey pointed out, if we really knew God’s goodness, we would know he is not in the cancer. That God does not cause good by putting evil in your life. He’s not sick or demented.
We need to start looking for God in the right place. So where is that? In Psalm 118:7, it says, “the Lord is on my side and takes my part, He is among those who help me…”
Pastor Jamey said, “instead of looking for God in the pain, the brokenness, in the cancer, we need to look for God in the people trying to help us. He’s not in the midst of our trouble. He is with us in his goodness. Don’t attempt to see God in evil.”
It’s crucial to know and keep who is who straight.
Satan is always bad. He wants to KILL YOU and DESTROY YOU.
God is always good. He wants to give YOU LIFE and to have it in abundance.
It wasn’t God who told me He would love me more and be more pleased with me if I was a better version of myself. It wasn’t God who said I am not smart enough or capable enough to do certain things. It wasn’t God who stirred up conflict, disagreements or disunity among my squadmates. It wasn’t God who inflicted me and my teammates with illness, infections and bug bites. And it certainly wasn’t God who took the life of a 13-year old girl.
Instead of doubting, accusing or questioning God, it’s time to put the blame where it’s due…on the Devil, and on him alone.
It is life changing when you come to realize that God is always good and every intention towards you is good.
A lie I used to believe that made me question God’s goodness towards me was that God’s will for me would be contrary to where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.
But what I discovered was that this is a lie from the devil and actually the opposite is true, God’s calling is often something that we really desire to do!
This was extremely redeeming for me because in the back of my mind I thought if I was somewhere I really loved and enjoyed doing something I really loved and enjoyed, then it’s not sacrifice and therefore not truly living for the Lord.
For a long time I have had a passion for health and fitness. I never thought God could or would want to use this for his purpose. In fact, I thought that pursuing health and fitness would be “worldy” of me. However, God revealed to me the last 5 months that not only can he use my passion for health and fitness, but that he wants me to and has called me to it!
As a result, to me this has been one of the greatest evidences that God came to give me (and us) life to the full and to enjoy it!
In sharing the biggest thing I learned on the Race, I want to leave you with a powerful question.
Is God always good?
I challenge you to really think about it and answer honestly. Because how you answer this question changes everything. It changes who you are, your relationship with God, how you live, how you think, and how you see the world around you.
I highly highly recommend listening to this message by Pastor Jamey: God’s In Your Corner
