{"id":33,"date":"2008-04-15T15:35:22","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T19:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2008-04-15T15:35:22","modified_gmt":"2008-04-15T19:35:22","slug":"is-the-devil-in-the-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/is-the-devil-in-the-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Devil in the Details?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think the answer to that question is a resounding “yes!” The Devil is in the details because that is usually where we find that the failure comes. Personally, I am often careful to make sure I am generally<\/em> healthy physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc., but it is usually in the small areas that I find Satan has a foothold in my life.<\/p>\n

That was the topic of Oswald Chambers’ devotional<\/a> for today. In it, he reminded me of a story in Scripture that has often intrigued me in the very aspect that Chambers referred: “The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.” 2 Chronicles 15:17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though King Asa of Israel was generally<\/em>faithful to God throughout his entire life, he failed to obediently remove all pagan places from their midst – an apparently insignificant detail. As a result, though, Asa, little by little, began to depend upon other things besides God in his rule.<\/p>\n

Early in his reign, God had given Asa victories over larger armies than his own (16:8<\/a>), yet later he relied on a Syrian king for protection rather than trust in the Lord. Becoming angry at the prophet who pointed this out to him, Asa threw him into prison and mistreated he and some others among the people, as well (16:10<\/a>). When he became diseased in his feet, he relied on doctors at the exclusion of seeking the Lord (note: it is the failure to rely on God rather than the fact that he consulted doctors that was the failure. This is not saying there is anything wrong with seeking medical help).<\/p>\n

The point here is that, though Asa brought many great reforms to Israel at the pleasure of the Lord, he was not thorough in the details of his life and it cost him. All the great reforms amounted to little because of the magnitude to which these small “high places” grew. Chambers brings all this home for us:<\/p>\n

Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless\u2014 you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes\u2019 effort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of our great efforts to “live the Christian life” or please God will come to naught if we do not take the time to keep every little area in our lives in check. Chambers rightly addresses the importance of always being on our guard in making sure there is no seemingly insignificant foothold Satan may have in our lives. In a moments notice, that little foothold can quickly become a stronghold.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think the answer to that question is a resounding “yes!” The Devil is in the details because that is usually where we find that the failure comes. Personally, I am often careful to make sure I am generally healthy physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc., but it is usually in the small areas that I find…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[138],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-x","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-idol-of-christian-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":0},"title":"The Idol of Christian Service","date":"April 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As a Christian minister, I am called to carry out the work that has been prepared for me before the foundation of the world. Actually, every Believer in Christ has, certainly not just \"professional Christians\" like pastors and the like, as it is through the blessing of service that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Devotions\/Biblical Insights"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":228,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/spiritual-anarchy-1-john-31-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":1},"title":"Spiritual Anarchy – 1 John 3:1-10","date":"December 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been following this running commentary on 1 John, I'm sorry I was unable to post on Friday or Saturday.\u00a0 Friday I was out of town and could not get on a computer and Saturday we had a break-in at the church and my day was tied from early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "PSI (Personal Spiritual Insight)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-god-of-manasseh\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":2},"title":"The God of Manasseh","date":"November 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"2\u00a0Chronicles\u00a033:1-17 2\u00a0Chronicles\u00a033:20 To read the account of King Manasseh of Judah is absolutely amazing in regards to the mercy of God. 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Reading about his faithlessness and sin toward God is like watching a fatal train crash in slow motion.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Devotions\/Biblical Insights"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-depths-of-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":3},"title":"The Depths of the Cross","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Living in a world where misguided terrorists regularly commit suicide, killing not only themselves but countless others along with them in order to become \"martyrs\" for Allah, Chambers puts the death of Christ in perspective, standing in stark contrast not only to those mass murderers who die in vain, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/to-the-victor-go-the-spoils\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":4},"title":"To the Victor Go the Spoils","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Man, I love it when God provides in ways that demonstrate He's in control! The context in which I write is how God has blessed our church in the last two weeks as we were faithful to do what He commanded. Specifically, it was to take our two services and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Devotions\/Biblical Insights"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":189,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/psi-renewal-to-transformation\/","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":5},"title":"PSI – Renewal to Transformation","date":"November 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Over this past week I've been meditating on and dealing a lot with the implications of Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}