Screwtape Letters

"The Screwtape Letters" are some of the most amazing letters I have ever read. In these letters, demon Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood how to lead a believer down the path to hell. The letters are very thought provoking, and really cause one to sit back and examine there own faith life. Screwtape advises small steps to slowly turn a believer into a lukewarm Christian through distractions and other smoke and mirrors.

I had heard about this book before, however I had never read any part of it. Just reading the little bit that we did spoke to me about my own life. I constantly am distracted from my faith life, seemingly by trivial matters. There are times where I accidentally put off my praying; a very important aspect of faith. Sometimes there may be a semi-legitimate reason for this, but far too often it is for some stupid reason that shouldn't distract me. The excerpt from the letters shows how the devil capitalizes on these mistakes, driving believers to be distracted by more and more trivial things; as Lewis writes, you can soon consume a person with puttering about, reading the ads from yesterdays paper, and staring at a long dead fire. To me these letters also highlight the importance of not being ignorant in faith. This was something that my group talked about. For instance, going to church weekly doesn't automatically make you a Christian, or seal a first-class ticket to heaven. We must examine why we go to church: do we go because our parents make us, because its a habit, or because we enjoy the fellowship of fellow believers while we worship and praise the one true God. I will confess that I sometimes have felt safe in my faith because I go to church twice on Sundays, however this is not a good stance. I sometimes miss the point of why one goes to church, and this book caused me to reevaluate my faith. As the PowerPoint pointed out from Revelation 3: there are no lukewarm Christians, for they will be spit out. A powerful warning and message for us as we go about our walk with God.