Satan loves to see smiles on the faces of people he is
robbing of their later healthy and harmony. Satan also delights in the agonized,
twisted, and shrieking faces of anyone that he’s tired of, or who has refused
to glide into his ruinous forms of “happiness.”
God, on the other hand, doesn’t care what kind of face you bring—bitterness,
joy, peaceful contemplation, extreme frustration; He doesn’t care; it’s all
good as long as long as you’re allowing Him to give you the things that are
needed for sustainable health and harmony. His own face twists in agony when
ours does. His Spirit groans with our groaning.
Satan delights in our semi-conscious frivolity and in our
suddenly-conscious despair. God doesn’t feed on our moods, He interprets our
moments by where they are trending. Our face is free to reflect our perception
of our current situation. His face reflects the joy or sorrow of where our
current responses are leading us. He is about restoration despite the current
cost.
This is because God is about us, and Satan is about himself.
We have accepted a picture of God that makes Him seem as egocentric as Satan… “but
in a good way.” However, viewing God as “all about Himself,” whether we see Him
as generous or oppressive, is our first error. Satan is the one who is all
about self, and his delight is when we adopt the same self-focus and even
project that onto God. God is tied up in His people; Satan, in destroying them.
When I experience the thrill of schadenfreude I am tasting
the sweet frosting on Satan’s sick cake. When I delight someone because I am
angling for something I want, I am again sharing in the heart of Satan. When I
please another in order to win their loyalty, I am again straying from the way
God acts. The only time I share in the heart of Christ is when I desire to
bless someone else, free of any payback—even paybacks as intangible as their
gratitude or my desire to be seen as a good person. I believe it’s good to enjoy
their gratitude, but if its absence causes hurt and resentment in me then I am
acting from the wrong heart.
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