Believing the Lie

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.  But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” (Jonah 2:8-9 NIV)

Working with college students for most of my adult life, I have seen it happen many, many times.  The siren calls of idols leading them to turn away from the love of God.  For some it has been a romantic relationship; for others it’s the promise of a great career; for still others it is the longing to be popular in the sight of others.  The end result is someone loved by God rejecting His love in favor of something more immediately appealing but with little lasting value.  

This is the devil’s game, to draw our attention to those things that promise immediate gratification so that we will ignore that which will satisfy our deepest longing.  In a culture enthralled with the immediate and the thrill, this is the perfect strategy.  And the end of the wide path is littered with the tortured souls who fell for the lie.

Jonah was loved by God and called by Him to be a prophetic voice. But instead he ran from God and embraced the lie about which he speaks.  But in the stomach of a giant fish and at a point of desperation, he realizes the truth.

This is often the case.  We embrace worthless things and forsake God, but at a point of desperation when things do not work out according to our inflated imaginations, we come to recognize the truth and turn back to the One who has always loved us.  Thus, to coin a term of C.S. Lewis, it is a severe mercy when the consequences of our turning away from the Lord open the path for us to return to Him.  

The fact is broken people are often the ones most willing to seeing the truth.  Try telling a person that his romantic pursuit is a bad idea, or that a career path will ultimately prove unsatisfactory.  They are unlikely to listen.  Only when the truth is borne out is there the possibility of returning to the Lord, and only then if bitterness does not take root first.

The only way to avoid the enemy’s deception is to be steadfast in believing and declaring the truth: “Salvation comes from the Lord.”  No relationship, career, or fame can ever accomplish what our hearts ultimately long for—a relationship with our Creator.

Today, are you accepting the lie that satisfaction can come from something other than the love of God?  If so, then realize the danger you are in.  You may end up in desperate straits like Jonah or at the end of the wide path of which Jesus spoke, which is strewn with the lost souls of people who believed the same lie.  But know this, the Lord loves you and longs for you to return to Him.

© Jim Musser 2016