March: Seeing through the angel of light
Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and the world offers many things in outwardly beautiful forms that are rotten to the core. Once you become a Christian, you begin to notice that things aren’t quite what they used to seem, but it might be hard to give everything up to God who will help make sense of what is good to keep and what is to be thrown away. One thing is for sure though, you have been made new and all old things have passed away. As you step into this new life, even the innocence of childhood pales in comparison to what is growing in you and what you are transforming and renewing into.
Remember how as a kid you could better sense what was behind things, better defend the truth you knew, better believe in what people you trusted told you, and better obey what your parents told you – at least the things you were afraid of disobeying?. As you grow into this new life and begin to use your discernment to tell between right and wrong, it will grow more accurate with its use. And as you cut away all the bad things with the sword of The Spirit of God, that is God’s Word, you will soon you will begin to see yourself taking better, wiser, and more prudent decisions. You will also have the same fear of disobeying the things God tells you, that you will know will keep you out of harms way and to walk clearly on the path of life (including all the wonderful things that are in God along the way that are far better than anything your previous life could offer). You will also be able to believe faithfully in God’s promises and decrees, and see him faithfully applying them and working in your life and in the lives of people around you.
The shallow things Satan and the world offers will become things you dislike and want to keep away from and then try to keep away from the people around you, as you become strong in God in a life filled with purpose, joy, peace, goodness, mercy, gentleness, meekness, temperance, grace, and especially love. Just remember telling the difference between what is right and wrong takes practice, and is developed over time. It takes patience, persistence, and perserverance to reach a point where you feel comfortable with your own discernment, and it will continue to grow after that. In the meantime find Godly Christian Friends you feel you can trust in and talk to, learn from, and work things out as you grow. And always keep your faithfulness to God first. And don’t worry, God will help you find the right people, and probably use more than one or even several Christian people to inspire you and teach you throughout your Christian life. This isn’t to say you can’t learn things from people who aren’t Christian, but God will be able to speak directly to you through your Christian friends in a way that will help lead you closer to the truth, as you better can see why what you have in you as a Christian is far more valuable than anything anyone else can offer you that is outside of God.