I am reminded of something I learned the hard way early in my walk. One of the biggest mistakes we make is to believe in all things holy and dismiss unholy things as accidents, bad luck, poor decision-making or even happenstance. The biggest single trick of the devil is to get you to think he doesn’t exist.
Life is tough enough just trying to live as Christ would have you to live without the challenges to your virtue and the temptations of sin. If you do so without an understanding of Satan, then you probably also think maybe you’ve done something that merits the hell going on in your life and, given time, you probably think you can figure it all out.
Eating is good, but gluttony is a sin. The bible says nothing in excess, everything in moderation. Marital sex is blessed. All else is adultery. Gossip is a perversion of healthy conversation and will eventually destroy the gossiper as well as the gossiped.
One of the last things we factor into our decision-making is the hand Satan may have had in it. That fact only surfaces as you are forced to suffer the consequences of your actions. The consideration of God, however, usually gets side-stepped as one conveniently rationalizes knowing the right decision and consciously making the wrong one.
God can and does often become an afterthought. The devil’s influence evaporates like a dream you can’t remember in the morning. The call of the world then becomes more powerful than any drug, thanks to the devil’s trick of nonexistence.
Upon serious investigation into the raw word of God, confusion and mystery are clarified by truth. Much like learning how a magician cut a body in two, we learn about tricks and optical illusions that can have you believing the impossible just occurred right before your very eyes.
There is no mystery regarding the word of God. It is what it is. “I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sent me, has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” John 5:24-25.
That’s pretty simple to understand, unless you think your addiction, your vulnerability, your misguided obsessions are just part of life you have no control over. I would rather respond as Christ did: “Away with you, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. The devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on Him.” Matthew 4:10-11.
Sometimes what the world offers you is an optical illusion that, with a little faith, becomes no more than a parlor trick. Satan is a pretty good trickster. But I’d rather see the Master at work.
