Here is the brief thought for the morning. Many times heretics would have you do the right thing, only for the wrong reason. That is what makes heresy so perverse - the actions, the externals can seem fine, but the falseness rots one away from inside.
Take prayer. There is much talk about prayer and why one ought to pray often. One should pray often. But why? There are three major options I can think of today.
1. Prosperity - God said ask and you shall receive, so get to asking so you can start getting the blessings from the Almighty.
2. Combat - Christians ought to be prayer warriors, those who fight off Satan and his minions with the power of prayer - so get to praying.
3. Trust/Union - When a Christian prays, the Christian learns more and more to place his trust in God, learns more and more to look beyond this world of sin and to behold the true union that God's children have in Christ.
Sadly, 1 and 2 are the ones I hear the most of the time. . . and there's just a grain of truth to them. Yes, if we have a desire, we should take it to God. Yes, our prayers do combat Satan. But note the shift in focus - instead of prayer being a matting of placing things in God's hands, prayer becomes (in 1 and 2) an action, a burden, something that you better do and do well otherwise the consequences will be dire. The focus has shifted entirely from God onto my actions. The crack is made -- and the first time prosperity fails, the first time someone isn't healed by my prayer combat. . . doubt creeps in. Sometimes it's doubt in me (do I have a strong enough faith), sometimes it's doubt in God (why didn't You do what I wanted, God?). Either way, a gaping hole forms in our armor.
That's what Heresy always does - even if you do something that is okay, it twists the focus to where things are shattered and ruined.
Don't look just at what someone does (or tells you to do) - look at why. Satan is cunning, and his works often look fine.
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