Scripture:
Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”
And again,“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.” 1 Cor. 3:18,19
Reflection:
So how did we get here? As the world watches the invasion of Ukraine, we went from a global pandemic to what is becoming a major war in Europe in less than two weeks. I think, as do many others, that we were anticipating springtime would finally bring the end of the Covid pandemic and usher in some sort of normalcy, but unfortunately instead we got a world in crisis, and all because one man’s self deception. A “rogue male,” is a term that is used to denote a rampaging bull elephant, in this case the leader of Russia. He has become a bully that is dangerously out-of-control, a dangerous loner and wants to recreate the world order.
Unfortunately, it has happened many times before; Hitler, Stalin and Napoleon just to name a few in recent history. All of them dictators that all were “self-deceived” trying to force their delusion upon the rest of the world. Millions of lives have been lost due to self deception. It is probably the most destructive trait that has plagued mankind.
The Apostle Paul admonished the Corinthians to “stop deceiving themselves.”He knew that pride puffs us up and distorts everything with a self oriented view that deceives the heart and produces all sorts of evil. The craziest part about self-deception is that it is a blindness that keeps us from seeing that our actions are working out of bounds. We end up having no idea that we are self-deceived.
Self deception has plagued humanity ever since the beginning when Satan whispered into Adams heart “that when you eat from it [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.”(Gen. 3:5) The problem is, the more we self legislate, the more we confuse good from evil and the more we deceive ourselves.
The Apostle James also reminded us not to fool ourselves when he said; “Those who hear and don’t act [on God’s word] are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
Thankfully, God’s word is our mirror that allows us to see our hearts in the light of His truth. James goes on to say; But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. James 1:24 MSG
Lord help us see any self deception. May we find delight and affirmation in living whole heartedly and truthfully before our God without any taint of Hell’s lie’s that would bind us in a self-deceived life.
David
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