In an article for CCM Magazine, Mark Hall, the lead singer of Casting Crowns, describes the context of the songs on the album The Altar and The Door:
“Hall explains how the picture painted in Psalm 1 portrays the temptations of a slow fade of faithfulness, from walking to standing to sitting. Though the verses describe a man who is blessed, the implied alternative presents ‘Someone who doesn’t walk with God and…You experience a slow, gradual change because you weren’t delighting in the law of the Lord.’”
As God’s children, if we are not thinking about Him, what are we thinking about? This is the essence of the struggle Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. If we are not thinking about who we are in Christ, it leaves us open to succumbing to the guerrilla tactics of the enemy. It will take us right out of the spoils of His stated purpose in John 10:10. On that same album, Casting Crowns put a song called “Slow Fade,” which highlights that just as being made like Christ is a process, so is being un-made.
The enemy’s mission statement is to tear down God’s throne. He tried that once and failed, so now he sets his sights on us. His goal is to kill and destroy the works of The Lord – from an individual; a family; a ministry; a church – or all of the above. We don’t have to fall into an overtly evil trap: like adultery, drug addiction or embezzling, for the enemy to be happy. He is just as delighted when we are distracted.
All we have to do is latch onto a lie he puts in our head and we go into a spiritual cul-de-sac.
For me, it was the vague idea I wasn’t good enough that had me driving in circles. I have always identified with Paul when he calls himself the chief of all sinners. Unfortunately, I didn’t always let grace wash me of my shame. Enter the Trojan horse and for months, I began to have the distinct feeling I was a fake. I talked a good game, but I wasn’t really living what I preached. I had traded seeing myself as the apple of my Father’s eye for looking at myself through the lens of the enemy’s hatred.
It was an intense praise and worship experience that opened my eyes. The Holy Spirit made it clear He is not interested in tearing me down. He has more important things for me and He needs to build me up to do them. When I held onto that thought, I was able to walk straight out of the enemy camp. To stay out though takes the daily discipline of practicing the truth found in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. When those or any thoughts of defeat come, I must put them under the microscope of Scripture’s truth.
This is but a small price to pay for re-learning how wonderful it is to live, in the here and now, according to what Jesus thinks of me and in the light of His blessing!
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