Multiply
"For those who are in denial that being divided away from the family of God equals being divided away from God, at the very least, you must acknowledge the enemies plans against you have worked to divide you away and weaken your devotion to the one true living God..."
And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply…” (Exodus 1:9-10)
The Apostle Paul charges us to not be ignorant of the devil’s designs. In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul has in mind the devil’s design to use unforgiveness to separate us from each other, and ultimately from God. Unforgiveness is a deadly sin, a dangerous trap we must avoid at all costs.
Here, in the first chapter of Exodus, we learn something more about the plans of our enemy. “Deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply.” He fears us when we are growing. He fears us when we are expanding. He fears us when we are multiplying. His plan: deal shrewdly with us to stop our growth.
The application is obvious. We are stronger when we are together. This same strategy employed nearly 3500 years ago has not changed. Our enemy is still dealing shrewdly with us to stop us from multiplying. He may not have the power, as did Pharaoh, to force us to work as slaves. Instead, he has devised a way to deceive us into choosing to be slaves. He promises college if we will give up 10 years of our time to chase every practice, game, and tournament we can possibly fit into our schedules. Not your cup of tea? He will put a screen in your hand that you can’t put down; wasting nearly half the hours of your life that you are awake staring at it. Not your thing? He will offer you things, possessions, and wealth; but you’ll need to work overtime every week of your life. You’ll come home tired with nothing left to invest into your family. You’ll need to quit coming to worship God with God’s people on Sundays so you can do whatever else is more important in your life. And before we know it, we have been divided away from the family of God – and consequently, divided away from God.
For those who are in denial that being divided away from the family of God equals being divided away from God, at the very least, you must acknowledge the enemies plans against you have worked to divide you away and weaken your devotion to the one true living God.
Whatever you do, dear Christian, stop being ignorant of the devil’s schemes. He seeks to divide you away from the body of Christ, and he will do anything to make that happen, even if it means "blessing you" with worldly success. The devil will give you all the worldly success you can handle if it works to divide you away from your devotion to God.
So, what is the answer? Multiply. This is what the devil is attempting to stop. We are better when we are together. Identify the things in your life that have sucked away the time you once devoted to Christian fellowship – and eliminate them. Identify the things in your life that have become idols before God – and eliminate them. Make weekly worship at your local church an absolute unwavering commitment in your life. Start or join a small group bible study. Begin an ongoing group text with a few fellow believers who you can text back and forth with to encourage and challenge each other daily. Commit to some form of outreach with your group; this is how we truly multiply, reaching the lost. Few things have the power to fire up the Christian life like outreach to the lost and hurting.
The whole point being: multiply. Something that is impossible to do with the number one.
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