Overcoming the Deceitfulness of Riches, Part 3: Resist the Enemy

David W Palmer

To illustrate God’s willingness and ability to provide for us, Jesus said to look at and consider birds and flowers:

(Matthew 6:26–30 DKJV) “Observe the birds of the air. For they don’t sow and reap, nor do they gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than them? …{28} Consider closely the lilies of the field, how they grow: they don’t toil or weave; {29} and yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. {30} Therefore, if this is the way God clothes the grass of the field—which today is here, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven—will he not much more clothe you (multiply clothes to you), O you of little faith?”

Father feeds the birds every day, and he arrays the flowers more splendidly than Solomon. The birds have their part to play in this; they are busy every day with what God has assigned to them—including singing and providing beauty. Yet, they do it without the toil of farming for their own food; and they still enjoy God’s blessing and provision every day.

Note that Jesus finishes this passage with the word “faith” (Mat. 6:30). He implies that “little faith” leads us back to self-dependence for provision, and that “great faith” trusts in God to provide for his children—as any good father would (given the means and opportunity). So, how do we have the “great faith” required to walk in this level of trust? Again, God has provided the materials; the “measure” is up to us. Faith comes by “hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17 NKJV). God has given us his word, now the measure of faith we walk in depends on our measure of “hearing” it, heeding it, and acting on it, etc.

What is Biblical faith? Faith simply believes what God says, and acts like it is true … for me, today, here, now. It is manifest through confident action, persistence, and assured confession—words emanating from the overflow of God’s kingdom seeds coming to harvest in our hearts. Genuine, pure faith has the power of perseverance, and it obeys; it doesn’t shrink back into idle words, fear, or disobedience:

(Hebrews 10:35–39 EMTV parenthesis added) “Therefore do not cast away your confidence (bold, frank confession coming from assurance in the heart), which has a great recompense (reward). {36} For you have need of endurance, so that having done the will of God, you may receive the promise: {37} ‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not delay. {38} But the just shall live by faith, and if he withdraws, My soul has no pleasure in him’ (Isa. 26:20, Hab. 2:3–4). {39} But we are not of those shrinking back to destruction, but of faith, to the saving of the soul.”

From [the structure and grammar of] this passage, we learn that faith that pleases God is confession, perseverance, obedience, and confident expectation of the imminent return of Jesus. Confession means to say the same word. For us, this means to say what God says—no matter what pressure, persecution, or distraction tempts us. This is the faith that is …

… the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1 EMTV)

Any attempt to walk in pure “great faith” will be challenged. The apostle Paul says that we will need to be overcomers in a “fight of faith”—the battle to overcome Satan, his heart-rocks, his cursed thorny weeds, and to maintain a “good confession”:

(1 Timothy 6:12 EMTV) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

Now, let’s get back to Satan’s second “weed” strategy: his wicked distraction scheme through the “deceitfulness of riches.”

(Mark 4:18–19 NKJV) “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, {19} and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

What does the “deceitfulness of riches” look like in every-day circumstances, and how do we overcome it?

First, it is by definition a deception. Our first and most obvious approach for overcoming it, therefore, is to know the truth of God’s word about God’s plan, purpose, and process of provision. In other words, invest the time to study, learn, and seek to understand God’s word [on this vital topic].

Our second strategy is to fortify ourselves with God’s armor, shield, and sword—ready for the inevitable battle (See: Eph. 6:10–17 KJV). God’s word clearly shows us that the enemy will try to penetrate our hearts with his deceptions. In Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul uses a deadly combat scenario of wrestling, burning, and stabbing to picture this conflict. In it, he likens Satan’s deceptive weed-seeds to an enemy’s “fiery darts.” Paul teaches that we can protect our heart with the “breastplate of righteousness,” deflect his darts with the “shield of faith,” and fight back with the “sword of the spirit,” which is the “Word of God.”

What again are the enemy’s “fiery darts” and “weed seeds”? They are deceptions about provision aimed at making us worry—distracting our minds from God’s truth with anxious pressure. Satan’s aim is to bring a harvest of his weed-seeds from our hearts until they overflow in a confession of his words coming out of our mouths—evil confessions that release the curse. He hopes to lure us to words that are distrusting of God, and to actions that deny God’s fatherly provision.

Our enemy’s worrying pressure may take several deceptive forms. The first one is centered on what we have already looked at; deceptions about the curse and the blessing. Satan’s weed-seeds sound like this:

“Get a good education, work hard all your life; and you will meet your own needs and provide yourself a secure retirement.”

Note: all good deceptions have a high percentage of truth. We should value working diligently in God’s assigned role for our lives—even to the point that the apostle Paul said that if we don’t work, we shouldn’t eat. Yet, it is a deception to say that you have to provide for yourself. Why is this deceptive? because God is our provider. Moreover, Jesus said not to store up treasure on earth. The part of the above statement that says to work hard is partly true, because God wants us to labor to enter his rest, and to work hard by his grace. (This will only be maximized in the place he has assigned for us.) Taking responsibility for your own family is right, but we should do it primarily by faith—not by the “sweat of our brow,” nor by ignoring God’s call and assignment.

Here are some more of the enemy’s fiery darts—his thorn seeds:

“God may have promised to meet other people’s needs, but he won’t meet yours.”

“If you step out in obedience to God to ‘sell what you have and give the money to the poor,’ you’ll go broke and irresponsibly fail to provide.”

“Because you have given up lying, cheating, and stealing, you won’t have enough for yourself.”

“Don’t give 10% in the offering; if you do that, you won’t be able to pay your own bills.”

“What I have now is not enough to meet the need; but if I give that away, I will have even less.”

“I know God has spoken clearly to me to go into his ministry. But how can I launch out in obedience to God’s call on my life? If I do, where am I going to get enough money to pay my own way?”

The one commonality between all of these statements is that they are all lies from the pit of hell. They are subtle deceptions—often very slight variations from God’s truth; they barrage us daily, hoping to get into our hearts and take root so they can grow into those cursed thorns that choke God’s word. Satan wants his deceptions to become our perceptions by being continually in our minds, painting a misleading image.

The enemy tries us repeatedly with many deceptions that are alike but subtly different; when we reject one, he returns with a modification to it—looking for the exact deception that will get past our defenses. If he can get us hooked on just one lie that we don’t immediately reject, he has his way to get his weed into our heart-soil.

If allowed to grow there, the Bible describes it as becoming a “stronghold” or “fortress”; both of these are military terms relating to war. When our enemy’s seeds come to harvest, they yield a constant stream of thoughts, imaginations, and ideas that press for expression through words and actions. If this happens, the curse comes—but not without cause. This is why we must be alert and vigilant in daily combat to keep his seeds out, and to uproot the ones already growing in our hearts.

Today, I encourage you to triple your investment into guarding your heart from Satan’s thorn seeds—his assault of deceptive ideas, thoughts, and images about how money operates. Instead of allowing any of his fiery darts to enter, hold up your shield of faith; deflect them with a persistent and pure confession of God’s eternal truth.

For example, believe, confess, and act upon: “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). “I am not deceived; God said, ‘Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap’ (Gal. 6:7 NKJV).”