Generous Week #2

Live Simply

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor. 11:3

There is simplicity to devotion to Christ.  It doesn’t take years in church or a degree from a seminary to figure out the love of God.  God’s love is so real, so visible and so tangible that if we only stop and think about what we have, we would see His generosity in a thousand forms and we would devote our lives completely to Him.

The two qualities of devotion mentioned in this verse are “sincere” and “pure”.  The Greek word literally means, “uncompounded, singleness, simplicity.”  The culprit in this story, the one who keeps us from keeping it simple, is “the serpent”.  Satan has a cunning cleverness about him that seduces and deludes us into thinking we are on the right track when, in reality, we are on his track.  No matter how it feels, Satan does not want what is best for you (1 Peter 4:8).  He is a deceiver and the father of lies (John 8).  He knows no bounds and has even tried to tempt Jesus with riches.  We have a vulnerability about us. For our part, evidently we are easily “led astray” – easily distracted, corrupted and fooled because of the complex way we approach life and faith.  This lethal combination of Satan’s power to deceive and our vulnerability to believe has been the downfall of many well-intentioned believers.

The solution to our problem is to get back to simplicity.  During this week we will look at many thoughts about simple devotion to Christ and how to achieve that in our lives.  Each day we will look at simplicity from a different angle in hopes that God will lead us down His path for our lives.

During this week, I would like to ask you to take notice of how you live and begin a process of elimination and prioritization.  Eliminate the things that keep you from following God and prioritize the things that add to the strength of your faith.  My prayer is that God will lead all of us back to the strength of a faith that is pure and sincere. 

Sun Valley Church, Used by permission