The Devil is a Liar

Living halfway around the world, I often find myself incredibly grateful for technology.  Being able to keep up with the lives of my friends and family via facebook and email can be such a blessing.  And by posting about our daily adventures, it helps me to feel that we won’t be forgotten by everyone back home.

But it can also be such a stumbling block.  You know what I mean: one friend has pictures posted from an amazing vacation; another talks of a huge job promotion; another is competing in a super fun triathlon; and another is pregnant… again.  And I think…

“I wish my life was that glorious!” 

“Look at what they’re doing – I’m such a failure in comparison!”

 “Why didn’t anyone tell me about that?” 

“He loves her SOOooo much – what a romantic!”

“Such a cool adventure!  I could never be that brave!”

“I’m probably letting so many people down!”

The devil is a liar.  Constantly convincing us that we can’t possibly be happy in our present situations.  That we “deserve more” or that we “aren’t enough.”  Sometimes I really do start to believe that the grass is greener on the other side.  I find myself longing for someone else’s life.  The craziness of it all is that I absolutely love my life!  I am living the very “adventure” that others might be longing for.  My life is glorious (at least I think so!).  I live in Africa!  We may not be rich, but I could care less about riches.  What many of us long for is richness of life.  And Satan is out to make us believe that our lives are horribly devoid of the very riches by which we are surrounded!

I realize there is a balance – that we’re never supposed to be “too content” with where we are or how we are living, for fear that we lose dependence on God and hope in what is to come.  But that is a different kind of discontentment than that which comes from the devil.  May I even be so bold to describe such as envy, jealousy, or even greed?  Jealous of a friend’s spontaneous nature.  Envious of an experience had by a family member.  Even coveting the walk another person has with the Lord!

 I stand convicted.  Deceived by the great deceiver.  Robbed of the joy of the fullness of God because I’m swayed toward discontentment.  I so often listen to the father of lies (John 8:44) rather than hearing the glorious words of my Father in Heaven, who not only brings us great peace, but also the promise of an amazing eternity with Him in a place with the greenest of grasses.

So I ask two things of you.  First, please forgive me for sinning against you – for seeing your pictures, your posts, these snapshots of your life -- and responding with thoughts of jealousy rather than celebration or simply just being happy to stay in touch.  Second, please don’t be jealous of us.  We are living our dream – God’s dream for us.  He has a different plan for you completely.  Find it.  Follow it.  If you have done so, don’t be deceived or swayed by the one who comes to kill and destroy as I so often am.  May we all recognize the richness of our own lives in Christ – and stop wasting time sulking over a life we were never created nor intended to live!

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:11