Challenge Accepted

Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. That’s a familiar phrase that, like many proverbs that stand the test of time, is rooted in reality. I was reluctant to make yesterday’s post, whether out of an abundance of caution or previous experience making such a boast, but I made it anyway. So much for wisdom. I reiterate who in his/her right mind would WANT to be on Satan’s RADAR?

(Still, I find it interesting sometimes how these blogs work out. I set out to write about one thing and something entirely different ends up on the page.)

I’m reminded again of the book of Job, in which lies the tale of Satan challenging God that he can cause Job to sin. As we all know, Job suffers but never assigns blame to God; rather, electing to ask God to show him the error of his ways so he can repent. “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” (Job 13:15, NIV) – one of my favorite verses.

But the challenge was accepted.

Satan hates to be challenged but he loves to challenge. He challenged God in Job and he challenged Jesus in the wilderness. He challenges us daily, even though most days we’d have to admit it’s not much of a challenge. We frail humans, made in God’s image, made to commune with the holiest of beings, we tend to fail. Even so, we set ourselves up in the hopes that God will be our defender.

God is our defender.

God gives us His strength (Phil 4:13, Isa 40:29), His wisdom (Ecc 2:26, Jas 1:5), His authority (Mark 3:15, Matt 10:1). He also refines us (Isa 1:25, 1 Pet 1:7) for we are so much more useful to His kingdom once refined by fire. We often see young Christians who are full of fire, ready to take on the world and endowed with the sense of urgency to make a difference. God uses young Christians for His purposes. We see “old” Christians who by all accounts should be a bit more refined, having been tested by life’s (and Satan’s) trials and emerged on the other side a bit wiser, a bit more calculated, and a bit more deliberate. But as Job will testify, getting from fire-breathing young Christian to fire-forged “old” Christian isn’t a fun process. God uses old Christians for His purposes as well.

And then there’s Satan, scratching his horns (chuckle) trying to figure it out. Again, as in Job, Satan throws his best at us, destroys us, tempts us, and causes us to fail. And again we come out of the fire refined but not burned, smelling of roses not of ash, welcomed into the arms of a Holy God not cast into the fire forever.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:6-9, NIV)

(Photo courtesy of Steve Killian)