Can you believe it? It is almost the third month of 2009 already…It seems like it was just yesterday that I was in our nation’s capital celebrating the inauguration of our 44th president! To God be the Glory…

But y’all know that to every yin, there is a yang. So if there is God, there must be the adversary also known as the devil…I love thinking about God…well sometimes I don’t like thinking about God actually – particularly when it comes to something that I want to do when God has clearly told me that I shouldn’t do it…But I really never like thinking about the devil…just thinking about the adversary and his wiles make me scared actually although I know that God is infinitely more powerful than His adversary…but I’ve discovered that to not think about the devil is to give him more power because he exists…yes, he does…

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8

My father says that one of satan’s best tools is convince us that he is like the tooth fairy…that he is a figment of our imagination and doesn’t exist at all…that way he can wreak havoc in our lives and we don’t even know the source…if you don’t believe me, think back to when you have tried to do right…whether it be attending church on a regular basis, getting up every morning to have devotion, praying each day, having a testimony, etc…Didn’t it seem that there was some force that tried to prevent you from accomplishing your goal? I think that force is the adversary…

I’m an obsessive thinker…at any given moment, the same thought will be traveling through my mind over and over and over again…sometimes when I have experience this, it’s just me being me I think…but sometimes, when the thought is destructive and leads me into constant worrying and fear, I think that is a thought planted by the real evildoer (Thank God, we have ushered in change!!!)

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.    2 Timothy 1:17

This is a verse that I say to myself over and over again when an obsessive thought whirs in my mind…There are several verses in the Bible in which God tells us it is not His will that we worry and be in fear…Here is another verse that calms me down…

 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,  and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Because I know the Father, He is constantly leading me, and I can trust that He is leading although I have no idea where I am going…Here’s another way of looking at it…In my finite human wisdom, I can’t possibly know everything and everybody and whether this person or that person intends to hurt me or not…but God does…and IF you have given your life to Him, He has got your back….and your front and your sides and over and under you for that matter…surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…Praise Jesus!

My favorite apologist, C.S. Lewis, wrote a fictional account of a demon and his apprentice and the ways they tried to influence a newly converted Christian man to do wrong…think of the whole angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder scenario. I read “The Screwtape Letters” some years ago, and it is a brilliant depiction of what could be going in the spiritual dimension.

I don’t know much about the Minister Joyce Meyer, but I have been reading about her book, “Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind” on the Internet…I found an excerpt of the book in which the struggle of a married couple is described. The devil planted destructive thought patterns in each of their minds based on their individual backgrounds, personalities and fears, and their marriage was suffering as a result…Of course, that was the adversary’s goal…

In fact, I sometimes gage whether I am in the will of God by how much opposition I experience in a particular situation…A few years ago, I wrote an article about the book, “The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life,” by Bruce Wilkinson. I even met the man. Although it was a religious article, I wasn’t working at a religious publication. Anyway, my boss was…well to put it nicely – let’s just say we didn’t get along…While she was reading through the article, she yelled at me from her office, “When you pray the Prayer of Jabez, do you pray for a new boss?” She cackled after she finished her statement…I am saved, but a few choice words ran through my mind (let’s just say one word rhymed with witch)…And then she gave me a hard time about the number of sources I had in the article and other stuff…it was opposition for sure…but the article was published as God intended…

Anyway, I could say more, but I won’t…

Any thoughts?

P.S. One way to defeat the adversary is to praise God…Here is one of my fave praise songs!!! This a great song for when you’re “going through.”

Comments

comments

The post The devil made me do it… appeared first on After the Altar Call.