Playing the Fool - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

In Deuteronomy 32:6 Moses looked out at the belligerent children of Israel who had failed God so many times and said, “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?” The children of Israel were playing the fool. Sadly, God’s people today continue to play the fool.

One way they do so is through disbelief. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to two disciples who didn’t believe that He had risen from the dead. Jesus said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). To disbelieve God and His Word is to play the fool.

Another way believers play the fool is through disobedience. In Galatians 3:1 the apostle Paul says, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” And in verse 3 he says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” They started out well but were disobedient and got caught up in the works of the law.

Still another way Christians play the fool is through desire for the wrong things. First Timothy 6:9 says, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires.” If you desire the wrong things, you play the fool.

Finally, you can play the fool through doing the wrong things. James 3:1317 says that there are two kinds of wisdom. Godly wisdom produces “good behavior” (v. 13), but foolish wisdom produces “jealousy and selfish ambition” (v. 16). A self-centered person plays the fool.

It’s sad to see so many Christians playing the fool. It doesn’t make any sense. Why should Christians live as blind, ignorant, foolish people when they have the wisdom of God?

Paul says at the end of Romans, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil” (16:19). If you have to be a fool at all, be a fool (unknowing, unacquainted) about evil.

Read Proverbs 2:1-22 as a reminder of what benefits you’ll receive from following true wisdom instead of playing the fool.

I see much of this sort of thing being because folks believe but fail to let that belief ‘sink in’. It seems that once something actually sinks in you don’t really have as much choice in how you respond. You do however have a choice in your behaviour when you believe something is true but fail (on purpose) to let it sink in. “ as a man thinketh in his heart (not his head) so he is”
“If you believe in your heart (not your head) that God raised Jesus from the dead...”
Look at almost every prayer of Paul’s.. take hold of, grasp, understand, comprehend those things you have been freely given....ie let it sink in!
No small wonder Jesus said “this is the work of God, that ye believe..and no small wonder Hebrews tells us to “ labour to enter that rest, for he that has entered into that rest has ceased from his own works...”
We make sure something stays in our head by refusing to think about it.
If it sunk in that you’d just won a million dollars how much choice do you think you’d have in your response? Would you have to force yourself to be joyfull ? Would it be hard work for your cup to run over?

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