Don't concede that ground

We speak often about compromise - making subtle 'adjustments' in the way we see things in order to either justify what we are doing or to convince ourselves that the rules God has laid out for us are old fashioned and outdated. The concessions we make in life may eventually be our undoing. We may not see that now, but at the end of every concession is another one. Compromise doesn't take us from 100% loyal to God's 'rules' to being 100% disloyal to them in one step. It is a build-up of steps, tiny ones at first, leading to bigger ones the further we move away from the 'rule'.

“In the last times there will be people who laugh at God and do only what they want to do—things that are against God.” These are the people who divide you. They are not spiritual, because they don’t have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves safe in God’s love, as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. Help those who have doubts. Rescue those who are living in danger of hell’s fire. There are others you should treat with mercy, but be very careful that their filthy lives don’t rub off on you. (Jude 18-23)

It is impossible for truth to be 'untouched' when compromise occurs. It is as though we 'remake' truth to fit the circumstances. Whenever we alter truth, we move one step further from God. Adjusting our reference from 'true center' is always going to cause us to live 'off-balance'. We are created to keep God at the center, but we struggle to remove ourselves from that 'seat' of authority, don't we? A divided soul is open to compromise and sin. God's place is central in our lives - the seat of authority belongs to him. Unseat him and all of life gets a little wonky!

When we make adjustments to what God says to be true, we are actually turning away from truth. We are telling ourselves it isn't 'valid' for the situation. How does sin get an inroad into our lives? By 'validating' what isn't really 'valid'! With every concession we make toward sin, our love for God becomes secondary. It isn't that we don't love God any longer - it is that we don't give him his right place in our lives. We still want to 'keep him around', but we don't want to make him our all in all. Sin's pull is hard to resist at times, but the first sign that we are making a concession for our behavior is the very moment we need to fall to our knees and ask for God's strength to resist that urge to concede that ground to the enemy of our souls! Just sayin!