A husband, the owner of a new car, was somewhat reluctant to allow his wife to drive his prize possession even to the grocery store, which was a few blocks from the house.
After she insisted, he finally relented, cautioning her as she departed, “Remember, if you have an accident, the newspaper will print your age.” I don’t know if that husband’s warning is going to be heeded. However, there are warnings about Satan and his workings that people need to pay attention to.
1 Peter 5:8 (NIV) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Har, har, har!! You believe in the devil? Yes, I do. Evil is real and Jesus said the person of the devil was a genuine personality. In fact, seven Old Testament writers and every New Testament writer refer to Satan.
C. S. Lewis, the atheist professor of Oxford University turned Christ follower, said, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
Satan is called the “tempter”. He tempted Adam and Eve in the garden and successfully got them to hand over their ownership of Eden and all their unborn children as well. When Jesus began His ministry, He first endured a season of intense temptation by the devil. Satan’s goal was to get Jesus not to fulfill what He came here for, just as he tries to destroy the future God has for you and me.
He works by deception, temptation, and direct attack. He challenged Jesus personally through the Jewish leaders and even through the apostle Peter. Once when the apostle Peter told Jesus that the torture of the Cross was not really necessary, Jesus responded,” “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Satan’s goal is to make wrong seem right, evil seem good, and consequences seem so far away. He has been doing this for thousands of years.
Have you ever spoken to someone about the reality of God and His goodness? Maybe you even told them about something God did for you and your family. And these people look at you as though you had two heads! “Poor ignorant religious fool,” they think. You try to convince them of God’s reality, but they just cannot see it. The reason they can’t, is that they have been blinded by the tempter.
2 Cor. 4:4 (NIV) The god of this age[the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Yes, there is a war going on. It is for the hearts and minds of people. Two great opponents are at work. However, one has genuine power and the other has only deception. Jesus Christ soundly beat Satan at the cross, and has given to His people the triumph that He earned. Christians get to enjoy the benefit that the Son of God rightfully earned.
Col. 1:13-14 (NIV) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
What a blessing!