If You Play with Fire...

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’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.” My grandmother would tell us this all the time, and generally she would say it after we had done something we regretted. This statement is more than a wise old adage; it’s an obvious truth that all of us need to hear more than a few times. The poignancy of it is contained both in the fact that it uses such an obvious truth as a warning. It uses the element of fire to make a point; because as we all know, fire is both incredibly useful and it can also be extremely dangerous. This statement that often carries years of life experiences, with all the bumps and bruises that come with it, also speaks to our tendency to overlook the obvious. Even when the truth is staring us square in the face, we skip over it as if it were hidden underneath layers of stuff, and we play with fire any way.

As mature adults, one would think we’d know better than to play with fire. The very notion of playing with it suggests a lack of appreciation and respect for its volatile nature, but this is how many of us roll—shot callers and all of that. The ego gets out of whack, and we start thinking that we can handle far more than we actually can. This is one of the places where the enemy tries to really sock it to us. Our propensity to jump head first and plunge into situations without wisdom and experience is something the devil commonly uses against us.

God doesn’t want our pleasures in life to be less. He tells us in His Word how best to live life. The key to every single piece of happiness and fulfillment we could ever want to find can be found within the realm of Godliness. Some of us know this, but sometimes those hot-spots can be very alluring. We long to be independent, and we don’t want anyone to tell us that we’re heading down a wrong path. We don’t want to hear that the person we’re involved with is not the person we think or that our decisions and choices are not coming from a place of desiring to please God. We keep pushing our own agendas and marching to our own drum beats because we figure that’s our best shot at happiness.

At our cores, all of us yearn for happiness. Somewhere in our journeys, we’ve associated certain things with feeling good. And believe it or not, some of the things that we associate with happiness and feeling good will inevitably cause us pain and heartache. Some of us are in relationships with people that we know are not good for our well-being. We continue to make ourselves comfortable with these relationships even though they are hurting us. We are blind to what the devil is doing to keep us from the life God desires us to live. The answer to this dilemma is to begin to pray and seek God. We need to be strengthened spiritually, and we need God's wisdom so that we can make decisions that move us further rather than hold us back.

Romans 5:3-4 (MSG) tells us, “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” Most of us want 'right now' gratification, and it drives much of our decision making and choices. Instant gratification is playing with fire, and it can land us in a lot of hot water. We need to follow the example of Jesus Christ, and allow him to teach us the lessons of our mistakes. In other words, we should let the pain from a small touch of something really hot teach us not to touch it again. Knowing our weak spots, the enemy will use our hard-heads against us and send problems and trials our way to test us with temptation. Of course he’s seen us react negatively and impetuously in the past, so he knows how to use situations and people to shift our focus away from God. He wants us to wise up and recognize these tricks for what they are.

Life demands a certain discipline of us. We’ve got stuff to do, and to maximize our time on earth and do all the good things God has in store for us, we’ve gotta do things God’s way. He knows how to help us get the absolute most out of life, and yes, personal discipline is a big part of it. There are some things we simply cannot do, and some places we cannot go, because those things will take us off the path of God’s love. He’s a God of order. He’s not the author of chaos and confusion; that’s the enemy’s territory. So as men and women who desire to please Him and follow Christ, we have to settle in our minds that self-discipline and self-control is a big construct in God’s plan, and this is a really good thing.

God has given us everything we need to stay alert. Our eyes should be wide open to the devil and his tricks, and we must not allow disobedience to keep us in the dark. 1Thessalonians 5:5-8The Message (MSG) says, “But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.”

Ephesians 4:14-16 (MSG) says, “No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.” God expects that at some point we’ll stop getting burned by the hot things we have no business touching, and remember the consequences the last time we pulled a fast one. He wants us to trust that He knows what’s best for us, and to learn to recognize the impetus of the Holy Spirit within, because the indwelling Holy Spirit will direct and guide us away from danger. Our responsibility is to follow his lead. ■

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.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright ©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

"If You Play with Fire..." written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.