When Lucifer rebelled in heaven, God cast him to the earth.
He had no power or authority until Adam sinned and turned over the dominion of
the earth to him. Thankfully, Jesus stripped Satan of all of his power when
Jesus laid down His life on Calvary's cross and rose again from the dead (Matthew
28:18).
Satan's only tool now is deception. Weak-spirited people
often fall for his wiles (1 Peter 5:8). Sadly, they think his thoughts
are their own. They truly believe they are following their heart, but it is
Satan's wishes they are serving. He wraps his thoughts in silver, but it ends
up being tin foil. He embellishes his ideas with money and power, but they wind
up as addictions, which ruin our life.
Once we come to Christ, we realize that we are now dead to
addictions and alive to God (Romans 6:11). We lay our idols at Jesus' feet.
We are crucified with Christ. We no longer live according to our ideals and
goals, but in God's will by faith in Him who loved us enough to suffer the
horrendous torture of Roman cruelty (Galatians 2:20). Jesus
paid it all, and now we are free to walk in His new life (Romans
6:4).
Our focus changes to eternal values and we look forward to
sitting at God's right hand with Jesus (Colossians 3:1). We read
God's Word and see His ministry in the life of His Saints, who are just like
us, mere mortals with a heart after God (Acts 13:22).
Realizing that we do not need to earn God's love, we rejoice in His free gifts
of salvation, redemption and sanctification (Ephesians 2:8; John 3:16-17).
With each new day we fall more in love with our Redeemer
and our heart gushes with love and gratitude for all He did, is doing and plans
to do for us (Hebrews 9:12). Intimate fellowship with Him
fills every moment of our day and night, even in our dreams He speaks to us and
we pour out our love to Him. Our favorite past time is praying, Bible reading
and listening to His voice.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for taking the form of a man and
allowing Jesus to open the way to the Most Holy Place for us to enter (Matthew
27:51; Hebrews 10:19). We do not avail our self of this privilege as often
as we should, because we focus too much on this life. Remind us that You dwell
in us by Your Holy Spirit, and that He is the wind in our sails, which moves us
through life according to Your will (Ephesians 2:10: Psalm 139:13)
Thought for the Day:
Fulfillment only comes to our life when we surrender all to
God and rely only on His Spirit within us.
