May
Telling The Enemy To Move On
At some point today, you’re going to have the feeling that you suck. You’ll feel accused, ashamed, embarrassed or alone. You’ll feel that everyone else belongs and that for some reason, you don’t. It won’t quite be an audible voice whispering in your ear, but it’ll be close to that. There will be a subtle hint running through your brain during this day, trying to creep its way down into your heart that says you are not good enough and you know it.
The thing is, you have enemies. I know this is going to sound weird and more than just a little sci-fi, but it’s true. These enemies are invisible, silent and capable of catastrophic damage. They are like really evil ninjas. They sneak in, suggest horrible things to your mind and then leave without a trace while those malicious ideas replicate, mutate and mess with you to no end. The devil and his cronies are out to get you, period. They want to unsettle you, discourage you and make your faith flimsy and faulty. These enemies of yours don’t actually have any real power. They can’t affect anything true about you. They can’t undo your salvation or change the way the Lord feels about you. They can’t erase your eternal inheritance or make Jesus love you less. The only thing they can affect is the way you see all this true stuff. They want you to believe that none of it is true.
So what are you supposed to do? How are you going to combat a force of deadly spiritual ninjas bent on your demise and lead by the devil himself? Well, it’s kinda simple, really. Treat them like you would any other bully. Get right up in Satan’s face and tell that old snake in no uncertain terms that you just don’t care about his stuff anymore. Tell him that everything he says is either a lie or old news and that you’ve moved on. My favorite new thing to say to the enemy and his minions is, “So what? You say I’m not good enough? No kidding, man. Everyone knows that. Who cares? You say I’m a big fat sinner? No joke! That’s old news, dude. Are you still on that? Dang, man - change the channel! Get a new song. You say I suck? I say, big deal. Jesus loves me anyway. Go talk to someone who cares. Your stuff is tired and I’ve moved on. You should too.”
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” - James 4:7
Mar
Time Out
When darkness began to reign on our Lord’s last night and the whole world seemed to fall apart, Jesus made a statement in Matthew 26 we need to hold onto. Judas had just identified Jesus with a kiss, a soldier stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him and Peter drew his sword, striking the servant of the high priest and cutting off his ear. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away and then said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Twelve legions of angels was enough to wipe out any army and basically the whole population of the entire planet. Jesus was letting Peter know that at any moment, He could have put an end to this. It was just one more way that Jesus was demonstrating His total control. The tide of events wasn’t turning against Jesus; rather, He was directing their awful course and could have stopped the rushing waters at any point.
When Jesus was betrayed by Judas, He let it happen. When He was arrested without cause, He went quietly. When He was illegally tried in the middle of the night on false testimony, He stayed silent. When the first fist struck His face, Jesus turned and offered the other. While they beat Him like a dog, He didn’t call a single angel to His defense. When they laughed, slandered and humiliated our Lord, He didn’t retaliate. When Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus to be tortured to within an inch of His life, He willingly offered His back. When they disfigured and ruined Him, spilling His blood, reducing His muscles to ribbons and exposing His internal organs, He didn’t force them to stop or even to relent. When Pilate caved into the pressure of the people and came back on his word, ordering Jesus’ execution, our Lord didn’t protest. When they dressed Jesus up like a sideshow king and made Him carry His own cross through the streets of the city, He simply went along with it. He didn’t stop them. At any moment, He could have called those twelve legions of angels and they would have torn back the sky and settled the score in the fury of God’s anger, but He never called them.
Instead, our broken and dying Lord walked down the city streets toward His own demise like a rag doll, limp with exhaustion, racked with pain and as silent a sheep going to the slaughter. Jesus staggered and fell, too mangled and weak to carry the cross, so the soldiers grabbed a man named Simon who was visiting Jerusalem from his home in North Africa. To these soldiers, he was just a random guy from the crowded streets who happened to be standing there, so they ordered him to carry our Lord’s cross behind Jesus as He walked. Then something happened that made Jesus stop. Finally, after all He had been through, someone went too far. Something happened that Jesus would not abide and He stopped walking and started issuing commands.
In Chapter 23, Luke said that as Jesus walked toward His execution, “a large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children.” Jesus didn’t stop His betrayal. He didn’t stand in the way of His arrest or unjust trial. He didn’t try to avoid His beatings, His torture or His humiliation. He didn’t fight against His sentencing at all, but when some women felt sorry for Him, He called time out. That was the moment that went too far. Some women cared about Him and cried for Him and that made Him stop everything and say, “Don’t do that. Whatever else you do, don’t feel sorry for me.”
This is a tricky passage of Scripture, because so many people look at the cross and wonder how they are supposed to feel about it. They love Jesus, and what He endured was so awful, so, are they supposed to be really sad? Doesn’t love make you feel sorry for someone who has suffered so much? It makes sense, but Jesus doesn’t want pity. He absolutely doesn’t want you to look at the events surrounding the cross and feel sorry for Him. You may be wondering why that is. You may be wondering what in the world Jesus was up to. Well, the fact is, our Lord had a secret weapon. He had a trick play up His sleeve that was a sure thing. It looked as though Jesus was being defeated, but the truth is, He was about to clench His greatest victory.
One of the reoccurring themes throughout the ministry of Jesus was this idea of the ‘upside-down kingdom.’ Jesus was always saying things that seemed backwards. “The last will be first and the servant is the greatest of all.” The thing is, Jesus didn’t just teach those ideas, but lived them out to the utmost. He was the Almighty God, but He bent down like a slave and washed His students’ feet. He was the King of kings who lived in abject, homeless poverty. His whole life was one example after another of the seemingly inverted values of Heaven and how foreign they are to us who live in this world, and on that day, His upside down kingdom was at its zenith. On the very moment when Jesus looked defeated, He was routing His enemies. As He willingly and beautifully marched toward His own death, He was flanking His foes. He looked beaten, helpless and defeated but He had Satan surrounded and was about to lay siege to all the old snake held most dear. Jesus appeared broken, but He was plundering the devil’s house. By His blood and death, Jesus defeated the power of sin and forever freed all of us from its clutches. Don’t feel sorry for Jesus, because this was His moment of victorious triumph!
In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul says it like this: “He forgave us all our sins,having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
(Lent is the 40 days from Ash Wednesday until Maundy Thursday, not counting the Sundays. It’s a time that Christians set aside for remembering the sufferings of our Lord. I have put together some thoughts that may help you focus on Him, remember Him and love Him more)
(For more, get to a quiet place, read Luke 23:26-31 and Colossians 2:13-15. What does it mean to you that God brings victories out of situations that look like bitter defeats? What do you think Jesus wants you to feel if He doesn’t want you to feel sorry for Him? He went to the utmost lengths to have you back - how does that move your heart? Tell Him. To see all the Lenten Devotionals, CLICK HERE)
Feb
Treasure
Some of the situations Jesus took His disciples into were crazy. Some of the things they managed to live through together were incredibly dangerous. Even just a cursory reading of the Gospels would make a person say that Jesus lived His life right on the edge. The stories those guys were able to tell for the rest of their days were not the safe, prudent anecdotes of your average Joe. No, these stories were the stuff of legend. These were the hair-brained exploits of a group of foolhardy, fearless, adventurers. That i to say, Jesus was certainly fearless. I think most of the time, the rest of the disciples were reluctantly tagging along, bracing themselves for the worst and hoping to at least have a pulse at the end of the day.
Don’t believe me? When was the last time you were in a tiny fishing boat when a deadly storm started ripping the world to pieces in the middle of the night with no lights and no life vest? When was the last time you did that twice? When was the last time the entire population of a town decided to murder your boss with you standing there and formed a mob to chase him to a cliff and throw him off? One time, there was a guy who was completely out of his mind, living in a graveyard, cutting himself with rocks and so empowered by demons that he ripped up chains with his bare hands. Did Jesus hang back and avoid this situation? Absolutely not. He fearlessly marched right up into this dude’s face and stood toe-to-toe with the evil spirits who were destroying this man’s life.
Jesus and His disciples slept out in open fields where there were bandits and wild animals. They kicked off the preaching campaign to change the world with no money, no reserved lodging and no guaranteed food. Jesus was threatened again and again by His political enemies, and one time, the guys were all standing beside Him when the religious leadership picked up rocks to stone Him to death. Before His public ministry began in earnest, Jesus had a forty day prize fight with Satan. He went 15 rounds with the one Job calls “The King of Terrors” and He lived to tell about it. If I had been one of the disciples when that little story was told, I wouldn’t sleep for a month. I’d be wondering if and when the devil was going to show up for some more.
Jesus led His guys fearlessly into whatever needed to be faced, and that’s the way good leaders do things. All the best leaders are servants and all the best teachers are examples. They are the first into danger and the last out of a fight. It’s stirring to follow someone who actually practices what they preach. There is an urgency and intoxication about sincerity that makes you get on board. I don’t mean the kind of sincerity that is forced or mustered up in order to cover for a lack of wisdom or direction. I’m talking about authentic sincerity that comes from a level-headed, measured conviction that this decided course is the best and only way to move forward. Jesus had that conviction and it resonated in the bones of those twelve guys and gave them a courage they didn’t have on their own.
If your leader practices what He preaches, then his message immediately gains the very thing every advertiser is aiming for: Credibility. This was the heart of Jesus’ criticism of the religious leaders. In Matthew 23, He told the people they had to listen to the leadership because those guys sat in Moses’ seat and had the power of the law on their side, but then He said, “But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” It was a stinging indictment. Why listen to someone who isn’t convinced? Why follow someone who doesn’t live out their own words?
Jesus always did. In Luke 12, He was teaching them about worry and trusting God. He told them not to worry about food or clothes or even their own life. He said you can’t add an extra hour to God’s plan for your life. He told them not to set their hearts on worldly things and not to run after them. He told them to seek first the Kingdom of God and their Heavenly Father would take care of them. He told them not to be afraid, but to freely give what they had to those who had none. He said, “Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in Heaven that will not be exhausted … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The thing is, Jesus didn’t just say that stuff. He also believed it. He didn’t just preach that message, He also lived it out. Peter tells us that when Jesus was being tortured and humiliated, He didn’t retaliate, but instead trusted God. 1 Peter 2:23 says Jesus, “entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.” When He was on the cross, Jesus had been up all night and had gone the whole morning without eating. He trusted God in His hunger. They took all of our Lord’s clothes and left Him naked. He trusted the Father in His humiliation. He didn’t try to add an hour to God’s plan for His life, but trusted the Father. He faced the worst imaginable pain and desolation of spirit without being afraid, but simply trusting the Father. He gave everything He had for us, the poor and needy of spirit. Jesus lost everything and the world He made abandoned Him. He was pouring out His life unto death for us. He was making for Himself a treasure in heaven that would never wear out. Jesus gave everything to make us His own because He didn’t just preach about your treasure being where your heart is, He lived it out. You are His treasure in Heaven! You are the purse that will never wear out! You are the one He gave everything for.
(Lent is the 40 days from Ash Wednesday until Maundy Thursday, not counting the Sundays. It’s a time that Christians set aside for remembering the sufferings of our Lord. I have put together some thoughts that may help you focus on Him, remember Him and love Him more)
(For more, get to a quiet place, read Luke 12:22-34 and 1 Peter 2:19-24. What did it mean for Jesus to practice what He preached? How did He live out His own message and how does it feel for you to know that He was thinking of you with joy while He suffered? Let Him know how you feel. To see all the Lenten Devotionals, CLICK HERE )
Feb
Fighting Words
If you were one of Jesus’ disciples and you happened to be standing right next to Him when you heard someone accuse Him, challenge Him, slander Him or call Him out, how would you have responded? As Jesus drew nearer to His goal of the the cross, this kind of opposition was heating up to a boiling point. The religious authorities hated Jesus and were trying to get rid of Him. By this time, they would use any means necessary to bring Him in and tear Him down. The Scribes and Pharisees wanted Jesus dead, but they knew that before they could pull that off, they had to somehow turn public opinion against Him. That in itself would be a major problem because Jesus was massively popular.
After His arrest, when our Lord faced the Roman governor, we’re told that Pilate knew that Jesus had been handed over to him for judgment because of the envy of the religious leaders. That’s what this was really all about. The people loved Jesus, listened to Him and followed Him. The leadership was jealous. They wanted that following, pure and simple.
So, if you’re jealous of an incredibly popular public figure, and you want to steal their audience, how do you do it? It turns out that politicians have always been professionals at this sort of thing, even back in Bible times. They knew that if you could create a scandal to smear that person’s good name, it would be over. The great thing about a smear campaign is that it doesn’t even have to be true. You can just make up something completely false, accuse them of it, and then get a sound byte of them denying it and that becomes the whole story in every rumor mill. It turns out that once people hear a piece of gossip, they can’t un-hear it, even if it’s completely false or just totally stupid.
These jealous religious leaders couldn’t deny the miraculous power that was at work in Jesus. Entire villages of people had witnessed Him healing incurable diseases with a word or a touch. Thousands had eaten the food He miraculously and instantly produced out of basically nothing. He had calmed storms, cast out evil spirits and even raised people form the dead! They couldn’t pretend He was a fake or a phony, so they invented the idea that He was driving out demons by the power of Satan. In other words, they tried to smear His good name by saying He had made a deal with the devil to get these powers of healing, restoration and life.
Of course, all you have to do is use your brain for five seconds to realize that the devil is all about pain, cruelty, dissension and death, so how in the world could he give a person the kind of power he doesn’t even have or want? Jesus was working the kinds of miracles that fly in the face of everything Satan cares about. Jesus was undoing the work of the devil, so how could He be on Satan’s payroll? It wasn’t just a false accusation, but it was also a stupid one that really didn’t make any sense. Why would you hire a contractor to tear down the house you have so painstakingly been building for thousands of years?
In Luke 11, Jesus drove out an evil spirit from a man who had been mute. When the spirit had gone, the man spoke again and most of the crowd was amazed, but not all of them. Some folks started whispering the story they read in the tabloids about Jesus making a deal with the devil. The ploy of the politicians had worked. Jesus knew what was going on, so He spoke up for the whole crowd to hear and flatly denied the ridiculous story and then said, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.”
These folks didn’t realize it, but they had all just convened for a press conference in which the Commander In Chief of the Lord’s Armies outlined the battle plan in the Great War against Satan and his minions. In other words, Jesus was saying, “The devil is strong and fortified. He has had an impressive run in this world, but when the fires of war are kindled, and Someone much stronger comes along, it’s all going to topple down. He’s strong, but I’m much stronger. I’m going to attack Satan. I’m going to destroy his fortifications and plunder his house. I’m going to release captives and plant my flag of victory in his front garden. Buckle up. It’s about to get real.”
The amazing to me about the cross is that both the bad guys and the Good Guys wanted it. In other words, the religious leadership of Jerusalem wanted Jesus dead. They plotted and planned a way to kill Him. Satan entered Judas so that he would betray the Lord. The devil was moving all the pieces of his battle strategy into place in order to execute Jesus. But that’s just the beginning; because, Jesus was also planning the cross. In fact, when all of His enemies were tirelessly working out a way to get rid of Him, what they didn’t realize was that this had always been the plan of the Holy Trinity from before the creation of the world. Jesus’ death on the cross was His idea and He was in total control of every detail of the process the entire time.
As Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross, the Scribes and Pharisees thought they had won. I guess Satan thought he had won as well, but they were all wrong. The Stronger Man was about to claim the greatest victory of all time. Jesus was plundering Satan’s kingdom with love. Selfless, sacrificial love was about to lay waste the treasury of the devil. Jesus turned a seeming defeat into the greatest victory of all history. He transformed what looked like the worst tragedy into total triumph. In Colossians 2, Paul says that Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” The death of Jesus was His ultimate attack on the devil and His outright conquest over evil.
(Lent is the 40 days from Ash Wednesday until Maundy Thursday, not counting the Sundays. It’s a time that Christians set aside for remembering the sufferings of our Lord. I have put together some thoughts that may help you focus on Him, remember Him and love Him more)
(For more, get to a quiet place, read Luke 11:14-22 and Colossians 2:13-15. How did the death of Jesus take His enemies by surprise? What does it do for your heart to know that He was really in control and winning a great victory? Talk with Him about it. To see all the Lenten Devotionals, CLICK HERE)
Feb
Of All Of Satan’s Lies, Jesus Might Hate This One The Most:
John 14:3
You know those people in your life that just don’t mean a whole lot to you? Look, we’ve all got them, so let’s just go ahead and be honest about it for a minute. It’s not that you hate them. They don’t really make you angry or even bother you all that much. In fact, they just don’t really move the needle at all. You can never seem to remember their name. They’re probably lovely people and very cool once you get to know them, but you just haven’t had to the occasion to really get to know them, right? Well, I actually think one of the enemy’s subtlest lies is to convince you that Jesus feels that way about you. The enemy wants you to think that Jesus is so busy changing the world with all of the people who are cool and beautiful and gifted and awesome and it’s not that He hates you, it’s just that He doesn’t really have time to learn your name. It’s not that you’re worse than other people, it’s just that you’re not all that special. If you’ve ever felt anything like that, you need to know that of all of Satan’s lies, Jesus might hate that one the worst. Check this out: Do you remember being a kid and having your first sleepover? Do you remember planning everything out and painstakingly getting the house perfectly ready? In John 14, Jesus said He’s doing that for you, right now! He’s preparing a place for you, so excited for you to come over to His house. To Him, there’s never been anyone as amazing or interesting as you and He loves you more than anyone else in the whole world.
To see the rest of these little posts about Jesus, CLICK RIGHT HERE
Aug
Jesus Fought Satan On Purpose, And He Makes You Do The Same. What’s Up With That?
Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God on purpose in order to go toe-to-toe with Satan. His clash with the devil was no accident, but rather an appointment. It was a scheduled fight. Here’s the part that’s hard to swallow: He does the same thing to us. The Spirit of Jesus lives in the hearts of believers and He’s constantly taking us places we wouldn’t go on our own. One thing that’s staggering in the Scriptures is the fact that the Lord never really says He’s going to make sure we avoid these battles. He doesn’t promise that we will always get to dodge the devil and sidestep Satan. Instead, Jesus gives Satan permission to sift Peter like wheat and tells us how to fight him. In other words, the fight is going to happen. You are going to face dark forces of evil. Here’s the real question: Why is that? Why does he make us fight on purpose? It’s because Jesus loves to win. The enemy of our souls hates love and he hates Jesus. He thinks the Gospel is stupid. He thinks people can never change and will always want to be self-centered and wicked like him. That’s why Jesus loves to fight that old snake! See, the Gospel is working! You’re not who you were. Sure, you fall and fail sometimes, but not all the time. The fact is, you’re changing! You’re new! The love of Jesus is making you something Satan can’t stand… it’s making you more like Jesus. Everyday, you are going to have to wage war, but don’t be afraid. Jesus loves to watch you fight and He’s going to make sure you win in the end.
Aug
Ambush!
Here’s a quick thought for your day:
There is a phrase that people trained to fight will often say that goes like this: “Don’t start none, won’t be none.” In other words, if you don’t want a fight, don’t be foolish, don’t misbehave and everything will be just fine. If you don’t pick a fight, there won’t be a fight. Here’s the thing: This is not true when it comes to the devil.
That dude is gonna be in your face, messing with you and fighting you until you are done with this life. You will never get a day off or a vacation from his unkind and ruthless schemes. 1 Peter 5 says Satan is roaming around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. In other words, that dude is on the offensive. You woke up today in a war-zone. This day will not be easy. It will not be a cake walk. It is going to be a fight until you are dead, but that’s okay. That’s not terrible news.
You see, you have everything you need to fight and win. In fact, all you basically have to do is remember who you are and what you have in Jesus and then just stand there and the devil runs away. Fighting that dude is about remembering the truth. Say this with me: “Jesus loves me. Jesus died for me. I am a child of God. I am completely forgiven. Jesus is in control of everything and this is all gonna be ancient history soon, as I fly away to paradise forever.”
Remember who you are. Remember what you have. Remember what’s true and dismiss the lies. You have to do it everyday, but when you do it, you get free.
Aug
Q&A… On The Feud Between God And Satan!
Anonymous asked:
Is the whole God/Devil feud as simple as “God is good, Satan is bad”?
..
So I Said:
Really cool question. And no, I don’t think it’s that simple…
I will start out by saying that I don’t understand everything about this whole deal, (or even very much of it) and that anyone who claims to have Satan all figured out is someone who is either crazy or else just silly. Satan is a creature who has been around since before humans walked the earth and who broke the world by his cunning and craft. The Bible states that he is clearly not someone to mess with or trifle with.
That being said, the Bible does give us some clues into what happened and what this whole dispute is about. I mean, on one level, yes - God is good and Satan is bad, but the real question is, why? What makes God good and right and what makes Satan’s way or viewpoint inherently wrong or bad?
The answer to this question could probably be a book, so in the interest of keeping this short enough to actually be readable, let’s focus on just one thing: Love.
The book of Job tells us that the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan was there. God asked Satan was he was up to and Satan said he was roaming around the earth. God said, “Have you seen Job? He rocks. He loves me.” Satan said, “The only reason Job loves you is because you pamper him with riches and stuff. Take away everything - ruin his life - break his heart, and Job will curse you.” God said, “Okay. You can have Job. Do whatever you want, but don’t kill him.”
{This is like a game of chess. It’s an argument between God and Satan. Satan believes that people are like he is - in other words, he thinks people will only be happy when they get things their way, but God has a different view. God says that people will love Him because of who He is, even if they have nothing but Him to love. They will choose to love him. Satan thinks this proposal is ridiculous because Satan doesn’t love anyone but Himself. God loves everyone and knows that when people come to know Him, they will love like He does.}
So, Satan kills Job’s kids, ruins his property, takes his wealth and gives Job a skin disease that causes him to live every waking hour in constant misery.
Now what will happen?! Will Satan be right, or will God be right? Is every creature as selfish as Satan, or does the love of God change people in a fundamental way that makes them more like God? - Long story short, Job loves God even when his life became a painful hell on earth. When Job only had God, he found that God was enough. This is what Satan doesn’t understand. He thinks everyone is as selfish and cruel as he is - and in a way, he’s right. What I mean is, we start out as selfish and cruel as Satan himself, but the love of God is changing us. God is rescuing us from us. God is making us people who freely love the way He does. In the end, Satan will see all of us believers - billions of us - loving God even though we have lost people and things, suffered heartbreak and were given no answers. In the end, the story of the church will be case after case of God showing Satan that love changes people - and that even he could have changed if he would have let the love of God come into his serpentine heart.
..
Jul
The Super-Encouraging Things About Satan!
You wanna be encouraged? Okay, then let’s think about Satan.
I know, that doesn’t seem like the most encouraging topic, right? Well, hang in there, because when you really think about the devil, there’s actually a whole lot to be encouraged about:
I mean, sure. He seems like a really scary dude. He and his cronies have caused a whole lot of problems for us normal folks trying to make it through our lives day-to-day. He’s mean and ruthless. He hates our Lord but he doesn’t even care about you enough to hate you. He is a liar, a murderer and completely fueled and motivated by pure evil. He is invisible, bitter and crafty.
But there’s positive stuff too!
For one thing, he’s got a dooms day coming his way and you don’t! The devil is is like that carton of milk in your fridge - it seems perfectly stout today, but it’s going down and soon.
For another thing, (as Charles Spurgeon said) “Satan is a chimp on a chain” - in other words, that diabolical creep can’t move a muscle in your life without the express consent of our Lord. He has to ask permission to stick his mitts in my life - which is good because it means we’re operating according to God’s plan, not Satan’s.
But, there’s something else about our enemy that you should be really encouraged about today, and it is this: That old rascal is actually going to help you in your relationship with the Lord. That pitiful, defeated hoodlum is going to do you a favor all day long today - that is, he is going to show you exactly where you need to grow.
You see, today you are going to be tempted in certain ways. You may be bombarded by fears. You may be overwhelmed with dark clouds of doubt or worry. You may feel the fires of lust knocking on your door or you may be outrunning anger all day long. Whatever it is that is tempting you, scaring you or getting you down and confused, you can be sure that the devil is behind it.
It’s actually a beautiful little arrangement - If Satan goes after something in your life, you stop what you’re doing, take that thing to the Lord as honestly as you know how and unload it on Jesus. Beg Him to help you and praise Him for His strength and love for you. Maybe tell a friend you’re struggling and that you need some prayer. Before you know it, you are closer to Jesus and closer to your friend, all because that old devil tried to mess with you. It’s as if Satan’s attacks show you exactly where you need to grow and then gives you just the opportunity you needed to come to Jesus in a time of weakness and lean on Him for help!
Wow! Satan is not only totally defeated and subservient to our Lord’s plan with a quickly-approaching expiration date, but he shows me exactly where I need to grow and gives me excuses to get help and get closer to Jesus! That works out rather nicely…
So be encouraged - even the devil provides a true man or woman of God with a reason to smile.
Jul
Q&A… On Overcoming Lust
ridikkulus asked:
how on earth do you deal with lust and the associated? how do you overcome? i hear it is a lifelong fight, but does it have to be this hard?
..
So I Said:
Let’s get one thing straight, my brother: Walking with Jesus is a life-long, knock-down, drag-out fight, period. Everything about knowing Christ is a fight and every single day, when you wake up, you’re waking up in a war-zone. You will always be a target of the devil and his cronies for as long as you’re breathing air on the green side of the grass. Lust is just one little part of the fight you will have to face every day for as long as you live.
The Bible calls Satan “the father of lies” “the accuser of the brothers” and “the king of terrors.” He’s mean, he hates Jesus and he wants you to be discouraged, confused, angry and full of despair. He will always be hunting your heart until the day you see Jesus face-to-face.
Now, if you’re going to be in a lifelong fight, you need some strategies. You need battle tactics. And the best way to make your battle plan is to understand what your enemy wants and how he is going to fight you.
Satan only has a few tricks, and one of his very favorites is isolation. The devil wants to get you alone. He wants you to feel abandoned. He wants you to keep your sins a secret. He wants your whole life to be kept in the dark so that you feel like you’re the worst person in the world and you’re the only person who has ever done this thing. (no matter what that thing is)
So, if Satan wants me isolated, then my prime directive is fellowship. You need Christian friends you can be open and honest with who will be honest with you too. This is especially true of lust, pornography and masturbation. Christians trapped in pornography usually try to get out of it by feeling more and more guilty and ashamed, which never works. They keep it a secret and try to feel so bad about it that they stop doing it, and then they fail again and again.
Fighting your battle is all about undoing Satan’s schemes. Believe the truth that Jesus has forgiven all your wrong, past, present and future. Believe Jesus wants to hang out with you and talk with you right now. Believe that you’re not a freak and that you’re not alone and then ask God for the courage it takes to tell someone you trust that you need prayer and help. When you cut down the lies by believing the truth and drag the darkness into the light, Satan can’t do a whole lot with you anymore. Find some friends who love Jesus and tell them your secret. Ask them to pray for you every day. I guarantee you things will change. You’ll feel free, forgiven, and a dearly loved part of a powerful family.
Hang in there, brother. I know it’s hard, but keep your head up. You’re going to make it out of this. And just so you know, Jesus loves you like crazy. I love you too and I’m lifting you up.
