“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
When I was a teenager in the late 1960’s, a comedian by the name of Flip Wilson was enjoying his prime. You remember Flip Wilson. He invented the character, Geraldine, who coined the phrase, “The devil made me do it.” It vaulted Wilson to such popularity that he hosted a weekly comedy hour on one of the networks.
I envy Geraldine. She recognized how much Satan often influenced her actions. I know that I sometimes don’t recognize the devil at work in my life and wonder if other Christians see who the real enemy is?
Jesus knew Satan. He once said of the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
It’s that verse that prompted Adrian Rogers, a three-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, to say, “His motive is murder, but his method is the lie. Christians should understand that fact. The devil wants to bring death to you. He wants to murder your purity, he wants to kill your happiness, he wants to destroy your spiritual life…You need to know your enemy. He masquerades as an angel of light, telling lies about God, trying to get people to believe the wrong things and become trapped in his web.”
One of the ways that Satan affects my relationship with the Lord is he wants me to think negatively about God. I shouldn’t be surprised. The first recorded words out of the devil’s mouth were: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) Interestingly, I never realized until recently that the devil’s very first words were an attempt to introduce a negative thought about God.
What is surprising to me is how far I let Satan go with that lie before I recognize what’s happening. I know that God is not a bad God. He is full of grace, mercy and love. But Satan wants me to think that God is cruel and severe. That somehow, it is God and not him who is responsible for the evil that I see in my life. Again, listen to how Adrian Rogers puts it: “You don’t have to believe Satan’s lies. You can overcome the devil. Revelations 12:11 says, ‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death’.”
Every year or so, I get my eyes examined which often requires a change in my prescription. I’m convinced that I need to pay some attention to my spiritual eye so I can recognize when the devil is trying to jump in the middle of my life. The Apostle Paul understood the inherent danger involved when we do not fully prepare ourselves for what Satan may throw our way and warned, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Ephesians 6:11)
I’ve had a little talk with Satan, at least long enough to remind him, as well as myself, that in Christ, I have all authority over him. I also told him a little of the truth as I know it: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold form those whose walk is blameless.” (Psalms 84:11)
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