I wrote yesterday about lies. The best kind of lies are the ones that have enough truth to be believable (to say the sky is “green” is a poor lie, there’s no ounce of truth to make it even partially believable). Satan is a master of truth-lies and if he can deceive us, even slightly, he can cause us to doubt the truth of God. Adam and Eve in the garden showed that to be true.
Another tactic of the enemy is skepticism. I’m amazed at how often he uses this especially within Christian communities.
The scientist is skeptical of the supernatural.
The traditionalist is skeptical of the new perspective.
The conservative is skeptical of grace.
The wounded is skeptical of change.
The educated is skeptical of decisions made by the ill-informed.
The rejected is skeptical of invitations to community.
Satan keeps us in bondage by helping us choreograph a nightmare, one that gets mentally and emotionally rehearsed to near perfection. Skepticism that becomes an emotion of fear almost always has tapped into a rehearsal of a nightmare that will likely never actually occur. Pair this with the lie that the skepticism is actually righteous indignation and the devil’s work is done.
So often, we believe we have the right to be defensive and that somehow God is incapable of acting on His own behalf and unless we take a stand for “righteousness”, God’s good name will be irreparably marred. Skepticism may, in some cases, be Holy Spirit driven – but the emotion should be one of compassion, not anger.
Remember the story where Jesus got angry and drove the merchants out of the temple. Let’s remember that this is the ONLY instance of anger seen by Jesus in all of scripture. We’ve taken this story to justify our emotions of “anger” (which are typically “fear” and “hate”, not “anger”). Jesus wasn’t skeptical here, he was broken.
Strong emotional reactions usually mean something is being violated. If you feel skepticism at an act of God or at an argument you don’t agree with, check your emotions – God doesn’t need protecting. Allow yourself to be moved to love and compassion and see where that leads you.
