Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
— James 4:7 (NEV)
Over recent years, I began to assess what I believed about God and faced the fact that I made some false assumptions and judgments. Deep in my heart, I judged God incorrectly. Now if you asked me, I would have the right response, based on head knowledge. However, going deep into my heart, letting the Holy Spirit shine light on things embedded there, showed me that I judged God, wrongly.
The statement on the wallpaper is one such belief. James 5:7 says to resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yet, I saw areas in my life where the enemy was not fleeing even though I had consistently resisted him for a long time. That got me to question what I believed. God said to resist the enemy and he would flee. This was not a maybe. Could it have to do with how or what I was believing? I knew it wasn’t God.
As I began to search my heart, I realized that although I did not blame God, per se, I did believe that He allowed this thing to happen in my life. Of course, I believed it was for His glory, so I chose to always praise Him, even though ultimately, I felt He allowed it. Deep down, I believed God stepped aside, did not protect me, and did not deliver me at that moment. I thought He allowed it by filtering it through His fingers. Without realizing it, I blamed God and and I came face to face with this embedded belief.
The beliefs of my heart dictated my path as Proverbs 4:23 says. It was subtle because I was trying to justify God. I would say to myself, “O, God allowed it because He is good, most of the time, but sometimes you just can’t understand Him. Who knows what He will decide to do?” This belief was a lie, but it’s what I held in my heart even though I said the right things.
When I decided to look at God’s character through His names, and through Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection, I saw the lie in my heart. God did not do the thing I was struggling with or even allow it. He couldn’t because that is not who He is.
My eyes opened and I had a clear picture of who Father God really is. He was innocent. By putting the blame on God, I let the enemy get the upper hand. By believing God “allowed” it, I was unable to resist the enemy. What I said with my mouth had no affect because I believed something differently in my heart.
My heart belief led me to the lie that God was unpredictable. You can not trust someone who is unpredictable. I judged Him wrongly. So I am learning to filter EVERTHING through the finished work of Jesus, what He accomplished for us. If my belief doesn’t line up with that, then it is a lie.
We pray that you will open your heart to assess what you believe. See if your heart beliefs have limited you from receiving from Him who really is . . . Love and Goodness.
You can’t resist the devil if. you think God is to blame.
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