The other day I was standing in line at the grocery store and the woman in front of me was wearing on of those backpacks with a toddler in it. As I stood there I noticed a large sign on the backpack that read. “This child tends to shoplift,” it read. “Please inform mother.”
In the spiritual realm, a kind of stealing is going on in many lives that is much more serious. Satan is in the business of ripping off things far more important than candy from the check out line. That is his nature. As Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy."
Satan obviously doesn’t want candy. Or your house, your vehicle, your clothes, or you money. But he is very interested in stealing spiritual treasures things that have value with God and are of eternal significance.
Take, for example, our very purpose for living. Satan loves snatching men and women on the streets of my city and your city-people who have potential-and turning them into glassy-eyed wanderers through life, with no goal from day to day. They lie in bed at night staring at the ceiling, saying, "What’s the point? Just to make money? Just to have kids? Why?"
People turn to drugs and alcohol because they don’t have a clue as to why they’re alive. Others turn to career achievement, or pleasure, or stuff. . . something, anything to fill the void. But it doesn’t work. God created us to worship and enjoy Him forever, but this awareness has been stolen from their consciousness.
Notice the progression in John 10:10. Satan’s first move is just petty larceny. Once he manages that, he can move on to actual killing, and from there to mass destruction. "Steal . . . kill . . . destroy." But it all starts with stealing.
WHAT HAPPENED TO "FIRST LOVE"?
Even among those of us who are Christians, the devil has a strategy of theft.
For example, as a preacher I have seen over and over the tragic loss of our "first love " for Jesus. There was a time in our lives when we loved Jesus so much more than we do today. We longed for God’s Word. Our love for God’s house was enthusiastic. Our eagerness for spreading the gospel was so strong. . . . Now, how is it? Yes, we still love the Lord. We still come to church. But what happened to all that energy and passion?
That is the problem Jesus addressed with the Ephesian church in Revelation 2: 2- 5: "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance… Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place."
Where does "first love" go? Our zeal and our intensity don’t evaporate. Satan steals the hot embers of devotion and consecration. We get ripped off.
Someone might say, "Well, you have to understand that back when I met Christ, I was an energetic teenager. A lot has happened since then. You know, we all mellow out with time." Does anyone really believe that?
The Bible says God’s plan for us is that we be "transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). There is no end to the power he wants to exhibit in our lives. The Bible has no retirement plan. God can keep his people on fire for Him; can keep them sharp and intense. We need to be honest and admit what has really happened. There is no point in conning ourselves. We’ve been ripped off by the master thief.
FADED CALLING
Or how about that unique calling that rests on every Christian’s life, the desire to serve others in the name of the Lord? Five years ago there was a stirring inside of you; He gave you a dream about what He wanted to do in your life. Maybe He wanted you to teach children. Maybe he wanted you to be a prayer warrior, standing in the gap for other people in need. Maybe there was even a pull toward the mission field that was birthed by the Holy Spirit himself.
But then… you got discouraged. Somebody let you down. Something went sour at your church. You tried once or twice, but somebody criticized you. Soon the dream was gone, and the calling wasn’t so real. All the inspiration you had felt was missing.
Where do you think they all went? Something very precious was stolen along the way.
The devil is always trying to rob us of something God blessed us with. When he succeeds, the spiritual gifts seem to fade, and the material things occupy our attention twenty-four hours a day.
HOME BURGLARIES
Consider the subject of marriage. Did you know that the divorce rate among churchgoers is just about equal with the population at large. If I were an atheist or an agnostic, I’d say, "Look, how come Jesus can’t keep you two together? I thought you said he was so wonderful. . . ."
Why are Christian couples breaking up? Is it because they shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place? Or because they came from dysfunctional homes and had bad role models? There is more to it than that. The thief comes to steal. . . .
In fact, Satan fully intends to destroy my marriage to Trista. These are the realities of spiritual warfare. Only the power of Christ can keep the two of us together as God has planned and can give us victory over Satan’s destructive power. No honest minister of the gospel will deny the fact that the devil has made major assaults on his or her marriage. It’s usually not talked about in public, but many tears are shed and prayers offered up to God as sincere servants of the Lord do battle against the forces set on stealing their marriages, credibility, and effectiveness.
What about our children and our grandchildren? They were dedicated to God at one time. But something has happened in the years since then. Now the young man or young woman is not living for God, and there’s no use pretending that they are.
Let’s not close our eyes and make-believe otherwise. Before we can see God do what only he can do, we must really see what is going on around us.
MOST OF ALL WHERE DID THE FAITH GO?
In the middle of all these losses is the silent theft of the most crucial element in our spiritual walk: our faith.
What is faith? It is total dependence upon God. People with faith develop a second kind of sight. They see more than just the circumstances; they see God, right beside them. Can they prove it? No. But by faith they know he’s there nonetheless.
Without faith, says Hebrews 11: 6, it’s impossible to please God. Nothing else counts if faith is missing. There is no other foundation for Christian living, no matter the amount of self-effort or energy spent. Nothing else touches the Father’s heart as much as when his children simply trust Him.
I meet people who at one time would pray over anything and everything! Even if they lost their glasses, they would pray to find them -and amazingly, the glasses would show up. Now the same people seem not to believe that God can do much of anything.
Oh, they will still give you the standard confession of faith: "Yes, I have faith in the God who answers prayer." But that vibrant trust and expectation are gone. They aren’t saying, "Come on, let’s go after this problem in the name of the Lord." They’ve been robbed.
There is an obscure story at the end of 1 Samuel that speaks to this matter in vivid detail. It is one of the low points on the roller coaster of David’s life. The young conqueror of the giant Goliath is now on the run from King Saul. So many threats, so many close calls. . . he actually goes to live among the Philistines for a year, because he has run out of places to hide in Israel.
David has his own little militia of six hundred men, plus wives and children. They set up at a place called Ziklag.
When the Philistines decide to go to war against Israel, it puts David in a real crunch. He’s a fighter, of course, a warrior, so he lines up with King Achish. But the Philistine generals spot him and say to their king, "What does David think he’s doing?"
"Why? What do you mean?"
The generals say, "Look, don’t you know that song they sang all over Israel? ’Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’-and some of those tens of thousands were us! He is definitely not going into battle with us."
So David and his militia get sent back home.
When they come close to Ziklag, they start to see smoke on the horizon. They run home and soon discover something dreadful: Every wife, every son, every daughter, every cow and lamb is gone. Someone has made a secret raid, burning down the city and stealing everything.
These husbands and fathers are stunned, and heartbroken. . . imagine them thinking of their wives and daughters being captured by some roving band of marauders. My lovely wife is missing! What is happening to my fourteen-year-old daughter right now? They can only imagine the brutality and heartlessness that have surely occurred. They begin to cry so hard that they run out of tears. They are devastated.
David’s family is gone, too. Everything is lost.
At such a moment of human sorrow, other emotions come into play. Anger and resentment boil up. David’s men begin saying, "What were we doing out there, anyway? Whose bright idea was it to go join the Philistine army? We should have been taking care of our families. Let’s stone David for this!"
Then comes this wonderful phrase in 1 Samuel 30:6: "But David found strength in the LORD his God." As the bottom was falling out of his life, he went to a quiet place to pray and gather himself before God.
Having gotten back his poise, his spiritual equilibrium, David goes for a consultation with God about what he should do. Whenever David was walking in grace, he never just shot from the hip; he first sought the Lord.
"Should I chase those who destroyed our town, and if I do, will I find them? " he asks.
God replies, "Yes, go after them -and you will find them. "
So they take off. Along the way, riding across the desert, they come upon a half-conscious Egyptian slave. After they revive him with some cool water, the man admits some vital information. "1 was with the Amalekites, and we raided the area -but then I got sick."
"Well, how would you like to help us now-in exchange for your life? !"
The man doesn’t have to think too long about that one. He agrees to guide David and his army, so they set out again.
Soon they come over the brow of a ridge to see the Amalekites below. Listen to how the Bible describes the scene. The Egyptian led David to them. They were scattered all over the place, eating and drinking, gorging themselves on all the loot they had plundered from Philistia and Judah. David pounced. He fought them from before sunrise until evening of the next day. None got away except for four hundred of the younger men who escaped by riding off on camels. David rescued everything the Amalekites had taken. And he rescued his two wives! Nothing and no one was missing--young or old, son or daughter, plunder or whatever. David recovered the whole lot. He herded the sheep and cattle before them, and they all shouted, "David’s plunder!" 1 Samuel 30:16-20.
Did you hear that? David discovered that every wife, every son, every daughter was still alive! Amazing! Not even one lamb was gone.
What a victory! In addition to all the recovered goods, David and his army captured an impressive amount of Amalekite goods, so that when they marched back home, there was a surplus. Everyone was praising God. They were shouting, "Look what God gave us!" They came back with more than they had lost.
This was the day that David found out that God recovers stolen property. He has away of getting back what’s been ripped off. What the enemy steals, God alone is able to recover.
Why am I telling you this obscure Old Testament story? Because we need to understand that David and his men came to a moment when they chose to get up and go after stolen property. The moment must come for you and me when we say, "Wait a minute-am I just going to keep sitting here feeling bad for myself? In the name of the Lord, my daughter, my son, my grandchild is going to be reclaimed. In the name of the Lord, I am not going to give up on my calling, my potential in life. Satan, you’re going to give back that property!
Remember, we are not wrestling against flesh and blood. We are engaged in spiritual warfare. In your life and mine somebody has to step up and fight for stolen property with the weapons of faith and prayer. You have to say to the devil, "Enough! I’m going to be like David and go after the stolen goods. " Get on your horse!
Our enemy Satan has no feelings of sympathy. If you don’t resist, he’ll rip you off every week, all year long. That’s his job. But Jesus came that we might have life abundant life. He can revive your marriage. He can bring fire back into your soul. Your spiritual calling can bloom once again.
You can recover the faith that the devil stole. That vibrant heart-faith and childlike trust in the risen, supernatural Christ-the kind of faith that changes the way you live, talk, and feel.
Satan wants to snatch this more than anything else, for he knows "the righteous will live by faith" (Romans 1:17).
He knows that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11: 6).
He knows that real faith is our lifeline to God’s grace and power. If he can sever the faith connection, he has gained a tremendous victory. He knows that without a living faith, prayer as a force in our lives will be extinguished. We will soon be just mechanically going through the outward forms of religion while experiencing nothing of God’s power.
But God can revive fresh faith in our souls if we ask him. He will bring faith alive in us through his Word, as Romans 10:17 declares: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"
Nothing is impossible with God. In fact, you will see God recover more than you lost, just as David did. That is what the Bible promises when it says we can be "more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).
The only question is, do you and I really believe that our God will recover our stolen property? Or do we think our situation is too far-gone for him?
