Letter nine from The Screwtape Letters poses some interesting thoughts about being content with our faith. Screwtape tells Wormwood:
"If he is of the more hopeful type, your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about 'moderation in all things.' If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point,' you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing."
Lewis hits the mark with this letter, because I think it is very true of new Christians to become like this. We are elated at first, but then the newness wears off. It also happens to people who have been Christians for awhile. Some of us may have experienced a "camp high" where we have all of these religious and emotional experiences that bring us closer to God. After camp is over and it has been a few weeks, the high wears off and we once again get stuck into what is comfortable.
"If he is of the more hopeful type, your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about 'moderation in all things.' If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point,' you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing."
Lewis hits the mark with this letter, because I think it is very true of new Christians to become like this. We are elated at first, but then the newness wears off. It also happens to people who have been Christians for awhile. Some of us may have experienced a "camp high" where we have all of these religious and emotional experiences that bring us closer to God. After camp is over and it has been a few weeks, the high wears off and we once again get stuck into what is comfortable.
posted by Gena at 9:40 PM
1 Comments:
I certainly accord with this. God tells us throughout scripture not to forget. As Christians many times we forget what God did when we first became Christians (I hold to that there is a time in your life when you become Christian), and than we gradually forget about God. This is indisputably one of the devil's ploys that we may gradually forget about what God has done for us.
A prime example, is how the Israelites always would forget about God delivering them from the chains of bondage, and go after false gods.
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