Sorrow is not a prerequisite for salvation. Learn why you shouldn’t let your feelings keep you from a life of faith. “I take you to be my lawfully wedded spouse; to have and to hold from this day forward; to love, honor, and cherish; in sickness and health, in prosperity and adversity; as long as […]
Worthy is the Lamb: The one measure that matters to God
The human sense of self-worth is powerful. That’s why we spend so much time and effort proving ourselves to others. We need to show ourselves worthy of what we have, what we do, and who we are. Knowing this, Satan prevents some people from coming to Christ through embarrassment over having nothing to offer in […]
Perspective: See the struggle for holiness through a gospel lens
Our perspective on constant temptations can color the way we see ourselves. But we can learn to view our path toward holiness in light of God’s mercy. Imagine a panicked family member waking you in the night. You must follow them immediately. Your high-rise apartment building is unsafe. Collapse may be imminent. You join the […]
3 ways faithful Christians fight the true culture war
What do we do when we feel the cultural current pulling us downstream? A strong Christian fights – not systems, not institutions, and definitely not our neighbors. We fight the internal battle, the turn of our hearts downstream. We fix our eyes on truth, and we paddle against the current. Hard. And little by little, we win. Puritan author Thomas Brooks helps us get there with a few bits of timeless advice.
Five tips to recharge your devotion
Thomas Brooks warns us that Satan wants us to infer an entitlement to laziness. He tempts us to believe that because Christ has won the victory for us there are no battles left to fight. But common sense and Scripture soundly refute such notions. Allow Brooks to explain his remedies against idleness and banish the enemy from this playground once and for all.
The cost of discipleship
What we gain through Christ will always be greater than any loss we incur because of him. Let us be willing to bear any and every such earthly jewel or trinket that we might hold onto the pearl of great price.
Four ways Jesus promised us better things
Thomas Brooks began his explanation of this first device against Christians’ devotion to God by illustrating four negative qualities of wealth. Its weakness, meaninglessness, unreliability, and danger make it a terrible substitute for the riches of our inheritance in Christ. The length of Brooks’ writings on this device made necessary our dividing it into two posts.
As he closes this segment, he writes: “I have been the longer upon the remedies that may help us against this dangerous device of Satan, because he does usually more hurt to the souls of men by this device than he does by all other devices.”
For an entire book dedicated to learning how to defeat our greatest enemy, this is a sobering statement. We would do well to pay special attention to the advice of this wise teacher here.
We continue through this first device against Christian devotion with Brooks’ final four remedies. This second half illustrates how the promise of better things in Christ, based on God’s eternal promises to us, can help us look beyond temporal pleasures.
