Psalm 73:11 And they say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?" 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, Who are always at ease; They increase in riches. 13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning. 15 If I had said, "I will speak thus," Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. 16 When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me-- 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. 18 Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. 19 Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awakes, So, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.
Verse 13 of Psalm 73 is the epitome of what the enemy would seek to achieve in my life. Essentially, that seeking after the Lord is a, “waste of my time.” Vain, in fact. He really doesn’t need to accomplish much more to make me turn away from the Lord.
If Satan can get me thinking this way, the rest of what he would seek to do in my life comes relatively easy. It begins with his incessant desire to have me think temporally, as if this life is all there is; as if there was no such thing as eternity or judgment or heaven or hell…
For evidence this is the case, all I need to do is look around. Who even believes in Satan, for instance? Even with all the evil present in the world today, let alone across the pages of history, most people regard Satan as a fantasy of the human imagination. (It is therefore a waste of time to be concerned about Satan.)
And then there’s the problem of facing what other people have compared to what I have. This is a constant in life, and it turns our brains into launching pads of lust and jealousy and covetousness. “Why am I not blessed like the folks on Gulfshore Drive
You see how this works? (A very effective slight-of-hand designed to take my eyes off God and put them on this world and this life.) There is such a patent unfairness to this life it just makes me angry and tired and miserable, and it can make me feel like giving my life to God was simply a waste of time. A product of my imagination… But really, really, what is the truth?
This I can only find out in the sanctuary of God, (see verse 17,) away from the lures and appeal of the world. The truth is the world is vain, and time is short, and that judgment is real. The truth is eternity is a really, really long time, and the things I bear in this world are light afflictions compared to the time I will spend with a God Who loves me in heaven.
The truth is what takes place OUTSIDE the sanctuary of God is a waste of time.
- Pastor Bill
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