In the Old Testament, we learn about nations that were against God and His people. The corporate consciousness of those living within certain regions was to reject faith in Him and to vehemently oppose anyone who worshipped our Heavenly Father. Very often during these times, people and entire nations worshipped idol gods, and this is an abomination to our One True Living God. Idolatry is catastrophic to our spiritual lives, and it is extremely damaging to our relationship with Heavenly Father. In Exodus 20:3-5(NLT), He said, “3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.”
As believers, our faith can be severely undermined by those who deny the Lord Jesus Christ and make idols out of wealth, fame, people, and things. A very old piece of wisdom says that if you hang around with those with fleas long enough, you will soon have fleas too. This is common sense, and we often overlook it. This piece of wisdom is important to understanding God’s requirements. When we step into Christ, we become an influencer for God’s Kingdom. 2Corinthians 5:20 says that we are ambassadors for Christ, representing him in the earth. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we give ourselves totally to him. We make Christ the head of our lives and from that point on, every aspect of our being is changed. We are rescued from eternal death and damnation, and because of what God accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, we receive the gift of eternal life. John 3:16(NLT) declares, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s working in us 1John 4:16(NLT) says, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” The heft of the truth in this verse is staggering. God’s love is no ordinary reality. It is the most dynamic reality of anything and everything in the entire universe. God’s love has no equal, and this love is in us. Please let that marinate in your brain cells for a while and allow it to fuel your every action.
You see, God’s love is not stagnant or boring. His love is powerful beyond our imaginations. God’s love creates! It produces the ‘wonderful and phenomenal’ in life, and God’s love changes everything for the better! When we become born again through the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s seed, the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell in us. So, everything that we could ever need to love like Christ and BE like Christ is inside us through God’s precious Holy Spirit. Philippians 2:13 tells us that through His Spirit, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
God’s requirement God tells us to stay in His Word, reading and studying it so that we can learn more about Him through the example of Jesus Christ. He tells us in 2Timothy 2:15(NLT), “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” We have the distinct privilege and responsibility to pass on to others what we ourselves have freely received from God. We are to encourage others and comfort them. We are to plainly teach them the Word we know, so they too will give God the glory and give their lives to Him through Jesus Christ. God tells us in His Word that demonstrating His love to others is the greatest thing we can do in life. And in order to be the ambassadors for Christ that we should be, we must be spiritually strong.
Ephesians 6:11(NLT) commands, “Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” God’s armor is His faith, salvation, peace, righteousness and the truth of His living Word. He’s made all this available to us through Jesus Christ, and He tells us in Ephesians 6:13 to put on every piece of His armor so that we can resist the enemy during life’s challenges and still stand firm after the battles we encounter.
Keep your eyes on the prize
We often underestimate the fiery darts of the devil and the sting they can have on our existences. Instead of guarding our hearts as God tells us in Proverbs 4:23, we let our guards down, and this is just the opening the devil seeks. When we take our eyes off the prize and look away from Jesus, we can be easily bamboozled. We let people into our lives not seeing them for who they are. They worship idol gods. They are against God and His Word, and they are often sent by the devil to come between us and our Heavenly Father. We’re susceptible to them because we’re not as spiritually strong as we should and could be.
We need to be in God’s Word every day. It’s the only way to learn to be true disciples of Christ and to spiritually grow in him. When we lack the spiritual strength that comes from learning God’s Word, we have trouble discerning the truth from a lie. Instead of us influencing people with our fully persuaded and sold-out faith in God, they influence us with their darkness. We catch their fleas. We can avoid this, and we should.
God places a hedge of protection around His people. However, when we move outside the barriers of that hedge, we leave the confines of His care and we forfeit the blessings He has ordained for us. This is what Elimelech did in the Book of Ruth. He went against God’s warning and moved his family to Moab because he didn’t trust God. He let his sons marry women that worshipped idols, and he along with his sons all died. To demonstrate God’s love to others, we must be fully immersed in His love, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to take us off the mark. Let’s not do things like this. Let’s cling to God and His Word. We should never place any person or thing above our allegiance to Him. When this is our heart, we’ll eradicate the peskiness of any darkness, and we’ll avoid the traps set by idolatrous people if we remain devoted to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Avoid Getting Fleas”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Comments