Satan steals, kills and destroys
(John 10:10). His purpose is to divide and conquer. If he can destroy
marriages, he will also destroy the family and eventually the church. He declares
war on couples who realize that Jesus is our whole life and who attempt to
serve God together (Colossians 3:3-4).
If the devil cannot stop us from
serving God and contributing to the growth of God's Kingdom, then he will use
busyness, over-commitment at work or with our children, negative emotions and
even apathy to dissuade our spiritual focus and fervor.
If he succeeds at conquering a
marriage, or our spiritual focus, he can destroy our testimony and use our poor
example to dissuade others from coming to Christ. He divides us and conquers
our influence in our world.
Demonic intervention will also
stir up in us a dissatisfaction with our relationship with our spouse, our best
friends and our church family. We end up critical, Pharisaical, resentful, and
eventually bitter (Matthew 23:4-12).
Human pride is one of the devil's
greatest tools. He deceives and disillusions us about the importance of our spiritual
opinions and beliefs. We stop seeing things from someone else's perspective and
we insist on our own way. We end up acting in hurtful ways rather than
exhibiting the fruit of God's Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
We are not obligated to pay any
attention to the devil's deception. In fact, if we develop a deeper intimacy
with Christ in us, His strength within us will enable us to resist the devil
until He flees from us (1 John 4:3-5).
Prayer:
Father God, the only hope we have
against submitting to the perfect storm of deception and temptation that Satan
weaves into our lives is to walk in Your Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25). As we draw
near to You, You will give us wisdom and discernment that will expose the
devil's plans, as well as the spiritual strength to resist him until he flees
from us (James 4:7).
We know without a doubt that
Christ in us is stronger than the devil and his demons (Romans 8:31). We have
seen You defeat him in our life time and again. We trust that as we walk in
obedience to You, You will continue to set us free from his influence and
interference in our life.
Thought for the Day:
Satan is the master of deception;
he convinced many angels to rebel against God, Adam and Eve to disobey the one
commandment that God gave them, and he makes sin seem pleasant to us; His goal
is to wear down our devotion to God.
