Beware of the Devil in Disguise

Yesterday, Miss Mack brought me the mail and there was a curious piece in the stack. It was an envelope that had a prayer on the back. I couldn't help but wonder where I had given my address that led to this envelope. When I saw that it was addressed to "A friend at..." it was easy to feel as if it was yet another way God is speaking to me and trying to lead me down His path.

As I looked at the contents of the envelope, something began to feel a bit off. There was a paper "prayer rug" that I was instructed to kneel on as I prayed that He would help me with the problems I'm currently facing. I am very much a "Jesus minimalist" and don't feel like I have to put myself in a certain position or say certain words in order for my prayers to be heard so this annoyed me!

There were testimonials from others who have been helped through this "ministry" and it drew me in. What struggling mother of two who is trying to fund conference attendance wouldn't love money mysteriously appearing? That's when it hit me. This wasn't sent to me by God, this envelope was sent to me by Satan.

After putting the name of the church into a search engine along with the word scam, I came up with pages of results, all from people who sent the prayer card to the "church" and were then asked to donate endless amounts of money and told it was the only way for their prayers to be heard.

As someone who has faith in Him and knowing that salvation does not come by works, I was able to think rationally and not fall prey. But how many of the people who received these letters will see this as an answer to their prayers? It is easy to want to see messages from Him where they don't exist, it takes strength to know when they are coming from Satan as a way to get us to stray.

Please, please, please, if you see an envelope like this in your mailbox, throw it away and say a prayer for those behind the scam. There is something truly heartless and cold about deception in the name of Jesus.