Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] (Galatians 6:7 AMP) Deluded - I had to look that one up to make sure I knew the exact meaning. It is more than just being misled - it means the individual actually believes something that is wrong. It is like seeing the color green but believing with all your heart that it is orange. The more someone tries to convince you it is not orange, the more you dig into your misdirected and mistaken belief that it is orange. Deception has many forms. We can bring it on ourselves because we don't want to believe truth, choosing some other 'story' that we tell ourselves because it is more convenient or more 'tolerable' to our taste. It can be thrown out there by others, reported as truth over and over again, until one day we acce...
Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (James 1:2-3 AMP) Okay, not going to sugar coat this one, but trials and temptations are definitely not something I count as wholly joyful! It goes without saying that each of us faces these day-to-day issues designed to keep us from following Jesus as closely as we'd like. They seem to come at us from all sides and definitely feel like they are 'enveloping us' in their snare, don't they? We must learn how to encounter them well, avoiding the snare completely. To that end, it may actually help to understand why we actually encounter these 'moments in time' that are seemingly designed to make us fail. They bring out endurance. Let me be the first to admit that aging has decreased my physical endurance, but my spi...