11/12/2024
This is our Adult, Wednesday night Bible Study at the Bryan First Church of Christ @ 6:30pm. Come join us and let's grow together.
WE HAVE AN ENEMY 11-13-2024
Our common enemy in the world is Satan. Satan is a schemer and takes on many forms to disguise himself. We should never underestimate his wicked power and influence, especially when we are in a weak state of mind. Satan’s work is to undermine the work of God in our lives and to deceive us. He roams the earth like a roaring lion to see whom he can devour. (See I Peter 5:8) Since all his work begins in darkness, he can hide himself and then manifest his evil deeds in different ways to fool us.
Satan desires to have our souls with him in his dark domain. The entire world is his. But, he is not satisfied with just the people of the world. Satan wants those souls back that he has lost. He wants Christians to fall back into his hidden traps. Satan will pull us away from God if we allow him to. Since Satan knows all of our weaknesses, we must be on guard at all times and not place ourselves in tempting situations. He is also called the great deceiver. When we give in to our weaknesses and sin, Satan is there to convict us. He throws our failures in our face and pours on tremendous guilt.
The Devil as he is also known is a robber of truth. He will attempt to convince us of a lie, so that we worship him. He will lead us to believe we are unable to do God’s work. He will try to persuade us that we are lost and not forgiven for our sins. The Devil will beat us down day and night to submit to him. If we allow him to, he will try his best to convince us we have no hope and are condemned people and must dwell with him. His goal is to drag us further and further from the loving arms and protection of our God.
Thanks be to God that He prepared a body for His Son Jesus who came down to earth and died for our sins. Jesus defeated the Devil at the cross. Death no longer has a grip on the children of God. For Christians there is hope and the promise of eternal life. As we grow closer to God, He is near us. (See Hebrews 10:22-23) Through our faith in God, His loving power and cleansing keep us pure and safe from the evil ways of Satan. In order to defeat the evil one in our life, we must learn to trust God and obey His word.
God’s word is powerful and is life itself. Our life is one of battle. We are in a spiritual battle everyday. Christ has won the war for us by defeating Satan. Yet, the battle goes on. With the sword of the word we must continue to fight as we arm ourselves with the full armor of God. (See Ephesians 6:11-17) Satan’s battle lines are drawn in the streets as well as in the hearts of men. Satan never gives up. He will attempt over and over again to worm his way back to win us over.
Many times, the Evil one will cloud our thinking as he whispers his diabolical plans in the secret regions of our minds. But, we have a choice. We can listen to Satan’s evil radio waves or stay tuned to God’s frequency. We need to remind ourselves that God’s “Word” is more powerful than Satan’s speech. God’s word not only protects us from the Evil one, but also encourages us to pray in all circumstances.
Prayer is our direct line of communication with our Creator. By living a prayerful life, God sustains us through His awesome strength that moves throughout the universe. Though Satan is a real threat, we must remember he is powerless when we live a Christ-like life and resist his evil deeds. If we live our lives as “Children of God”, Satan is no match for our Holy God. Perhaps, we can compare Satan to a vicious Lion caged up. As long as we obey the sign to keep away from the Lion’s cage there is no danger. The Lion cannot hurt us. However, if we get too close to his cage he may bring his jaws down on our hand and pull us into his den and devour us.
