Deception is a barbed hook
Here’s something that just came to me yesterday.
When the devil deceives us, it wounds us like a barbed hook. Firstly, when we listen to and agree with the deception itself, that means that we are living under a lie, and being less than what God has intented for us to be.
But the barb is that we don’t realise that it is a deception (that’s the very nature of deception), so we think it was our own idea. Therefore if it is pointed out to us, we feel that we are being personally attacked and so we defend ourselves. Yet in reality we are not actually defending ourselves - we are actually defending the deception!
So first the hook goes in, then we can’t pull it out, because the barb gets stuck. Once the devil has stuck the hook in, he doesn’t need to keep sticking it in, because then we vehemently defend “our” position for him!
We can’t, by definition, see where we are being deceived. We can only have someone else point it out for us. And in general we don’t respond to other’s ‘criticisms’ of us very well. Hence King David’s words in Psalm 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
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