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 the couple who realizes that Jesus is our whole life and who
attempt to serve God together (Colossians 3:3-4).
If he 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's activities, negative emotions,
and even apathy to dissuade our spiritual focus and fervor.
If Satan can conquer a marriage,
or our spiritual focus, he can destroy our testimony and use this poor example
to dissuade others from coming to Christ. He divides us and conquers our
influence in our world.
He will also stir up in us a
dissatisfaction with our relationships with our spouse, workmates, neighbors, our best friends and
our church family. We end up critical, pharisaical, resentful, and eventually
bitter (Matthew 23:4-12). We cannot find happiness, though we search for it.
The devil also uses human pride
to exaggerate in our mind the importance of our opinions and beliefs. We fail
to try to see 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).
The truth, however, is that 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 (James 4:7).
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 (1 John 4:4). We have
seen You defeat him in our life time and again, and we trust that as we walk in
obedience to You, that 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, once he
wears down our devotion to God; however, if we draw near to God and resist the
devil, he has to flee from us. - James 4:7
