“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man…” Romans 1:22-23a

Assaulting a Baby

When I was in high school, I took a class called “Bible as Literature.” I was a new believer, and assumed that the class would teach me how to read the Bible. I was wrong!

The first day, the teacher told us to write the word “God” on a sheet of notebook paper. She then asked for a show of hands of who wrote it with a capital G, then who wrote it with a lower case g. To my surprise, I was one of the few who wrote it with a capital G.

For the entire semester, this teacher questioned every shred of evidence of God. Bible stories were myths and fables with no factual basis that only a very foolish person would believe. Faith was a crutch for the weak-minded who could not think for themselves.

We were taught that every culture since the beginning of time has exactly the same stories as the Bible: Creation by an all-powerful being. A flood or other disaster that resulted in the destruction of man. Lawgivers. Good versus evil. Some way of getting in favor with the all-powerful one. The Bible was portrayed as just another book to read, like any other book of literature telling a story.

This rattled my young faith. I was adrift on a turbulent sea of confusion. Waves of unbelief and questioning crashed over me each day as I attended class. In my immaturity, I feared being thought weak-minded, a believer of fables, and one who based my life’s meaning on a mere imaginative story. More than that, I feared falling out of favor with a respected teacher. (I was taught to respect all teachers for having superior knowledge by reason of study.) I especially feared earning a bad grade, as I was college-bound. I didn’t yet know about the power of prayer, nor how to stand up for my faith, nor be a witness.

During that semester, I did not know what I believed, for the constant assault on my faith and sensibility weakened my faith. But something rose up in me. It was the Spirit of the living God breaking through deception, and it brought me life. I began to study the Word with vigor, and as the years went by, He graced me with faith to believe, eyes to see, and ears to hear what the Spirit was saying.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He has no qualms about attacking the weakest among us (and the strongest among us). That class was a full frontal assault on the faith of a baby—Satan tried to stop the call of God on my life right at the start. But God had the victory. He knew the plans He had for me. I was to become a student and a teacher of the Word.

Can you see God’s victory over your past that brings you to the present?

 Lord, You waste nothing we experience. We watch for Your victory. In Your Son’s name, Amen.