One of God’s matchless gifts is the grace He gives us to live in the moment with contentment and joy. This morning as I was washing the breakfast dishes, looking up I caught sight of the beautiful scene outside my kitchen window. My eyes began feasting on the sunlight streaming across the field. I thought to myself how beautiful the beams of light looked dancing on the tall grass and felt my soul reflecting that same light.
Then a surprising truth hit me—this beauty I was seeing and this sweet joy inside, reminded me of being high—this was a natural high! As I relished the beauty of the moment, I began to contrast this feeling to the high I once chased through alcohol and drugs. That high was a counterfeit…
A counterfeit is: “That which is made in imitation of something, but without lawful authority, and with a view to defraud, by passing the false for the true.” Counterfeiting is the devil’s Modus Operandi or his “usual way of doing something; especially: the usual way that a particular criminal performs a crime.”
Yes, our adversary, the devil, deceives by offering a counterfeit for the gifts that only God can give. His modus operandi has not changed from the time we read of his tactics in Genesis:
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God not said, Ye shall not eat of every tree that is in the garden? ”
The devil tries to destroy our contentment by questioning God’s authority in our life. He offers to us a lie for the truth:
“ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ”
Our adversary uses outside pressure to appeal to our flesh and we begin to lust after something outside of God’s will:
“ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ”
That is why contentment is so precious…
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:16-17) ”
I cherish the contentment God gives me now! I no longer need a counterfeit high. It amazes me every day how much beauty and joy there is to be found in just the simple things of life.
Sometimes I wonder if the light is so beautiful to me now because I have known the terrible darkness before. The high I sought then was only found in escaping reality. I was not content and had no peace. Those highs on alcohol and drugs were short, temporary counterfeits of the high I experience now. This natural high is only found in celebrating reality through gratefulness to God.
It seems the devil's modus operandi has always been to get us to take our eyes off of our Creator and His provision for our life--and onto a worldly counterfeit. We have a loving, merciful, perfect heavenly Father, Who created us for Himself and wants only the best for us—but our adversary, the devil only wants to steal, kill and destroy all that we have and all that we are:
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ”
Having life more abundantly…that’s it!
The high that the adversary cannot duplicate.
