I believe there are two misconceptions that we who are believers in Jesus operate under about the bad things in our lives.

1.) We attribute every bad thing to the enemy.
2.) We think the enemy is stronger than us, so he will win.

Neither is a godly approach to life and we need to correct our thinking.

1.) The truth is that sometimes, that bad thing that has happened is a consequence of a choice we’ve made. It may not be an immediate consequence, so we might have forgotten the choice, or thought we got away with it. But remember: God is not mocked, what we sow, we reap… even if it takes a while.

It’s possible that the bad things are a result of our own fleshly nature making the decisions instead of following God. “Just one more won’t hurt…” isn’t the enemy, it’s us. Our own greed, gluttony, and desire.

2.) The enemy of our souls is the same one who tempted Eve and Adam who was with her into turning from God. He’s had lots of practice enticing humans into choosing him over God. But hear me:

1 John 4:4 tells us that Christ in us is greater than this ancient foe. We have His authority to kick Satan to the curb and refuse to walk with him.

It’s a simple formula:

Who holds the strength here? You do. But the enemy is scary. He seems to be everywhere. Resisting him is really hard! You CAN do it!

Believer, with Christ living in you, you can resist the temptations and fears that the enemy uses to trap you.

Humble yourself before God. Take you off the throne of your life and place God on it—and refuse to take it back! Recognize who you are in the relationship and live in that realization. Then, when the one who wants to trip you up whispers about what you deserve and what would be so good, throw up that hand and tell him, “Not today, go away! Jesus has me.” He has to leave. Don’t imagine otherwise.

Let’s start today. Let’s examine those things happening to us to attribute their origin correctly. If it’s you, make the changes necessary to get back into alignment with God. If it’s the enemy, humble yourself before God and tell the devil to hit the road.

It is a scary thought to think that the enemy that was there when Jesus was crucified comes after us sometimes. But we have to be so careful to recognize that it’s not always him. It’s not. Sometimes it’s just us wanting that extra Thin Mint, you know, sometimes it’s us that doesn’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings so we tell a little lie, or we take that thing home from the office because they’ll never miss it. Right? That’s not the enemy, that’s our flesh, that’s our nature, that’s us being purely human and not following God.

Those are the things we have to change, but we don’t have to fear the enemy. We don’t have to fear this devil who wants to come after us, to use us to hurt God. See, that’s what his goal is, he can’t destroy God, but he can inflict pain on God, by messing us up. Think about that. If you’re a parent, somebody can come at you all day long, and you’re just like, “Go away, you bug me, go away.” But the minute that they attack your child, it is on. I think that’s the same with God. When the enemy sees us he sees us as a target to be used to hurt God. But God says we don’t have to be hurt by the enemy. We don’t have to be managed by the enemy. We don’t have to fall prey to the devil. All we have to do is humble ourselves, put ourselves in right relationship with God, and then tell the devil to get on down the road. Not today. Not today. Resist him at every turn.

When we have Christ living in us, when we’re living noonday-shadow close to the Savior, we recognize those attacks that truly come from the enemy, and we say to him: No, go away. The challenge is to walk so close to the Lord, to seek Him, morning, noon and night, so that we are empowered by Him, that we are given His discernment, and we can resist the devil, and he just has to flee. He has to flee. He has no space where Jesus is. So let’s live Jesus. You think you can’t? You think it’s too hard, you can’t do it? You can! I know you can. I believe in you, but better than that.–way better than that, God believes in you, and he is absolutely for you.

Coffee, Bible, Journal.

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