Sorry, I couldn’t resist
Sometimes I find myself in conflict with Satan.
This conflict can come in many forms: temptation, addiction, hatred, vengeance, jealousy, dishonesty, infidelity, and many more. Sometimes he attacks you directly……. sometimes he attacks someone you love. We don’t like to think about the guy very much. But, Satan is very real and he is active in our world.
I often think of him as evil with a to-do list.
If you don’t believe in Satan or don’t feel any conflict with him, is it possible that you and he are travelling in the same direction?
Maybe he is not attacking you because he is satisfied with the path you are on. In other words, perhaps he has nothing to gain by messing with you. You don’t have to be a serial killer, a cheating spouse, a thief or a habitual liar. You just have to be distant from God or moving away from him. C.S.Lewis said it well in “the Screwtape Letters”, (advice to a young demon from his mentor, a senior demon):
“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
Read the Bible and assess your path. Are you close to God……..or at least trying to get closer? Are you closer to him today than you were 5 years ago? If you need to make a change……..do so.
Change your direction and you just may bump into Satan.
Please understand, not everyone who is blessed with a happy peaceful life is on Satan’s path. Many, including myself, are simply blessed by God’s grace.
However, I am convinced that a great many people who are leading lives that look charmed and trouble free are doing so because Satan has nothing to gain by interfering with them.
I am not encouraging you to look for Satan in the lives of those who “have it made”. Rather, I want you to examine yourself. Assess your path. Where are you headed….toward the light or toward the nothing? Be sure that you are on God’s path or at least working toward it. When you are attacked, consider it a badge of honor…….. that Satan considers you to be such a problem…….. that attacking you is worth his trouble.
There is a philosophy among native Americans. It is that a warrior is judged by the quality of his enemies. If you hide under a rock, you will be safe. If you do nothing, nobody is going to attack you. You just aren’t worth the trouble. But, if you stand up and say something……do something…….build something, then you become important enough……..perhaps dangerous enough to attract the attention of those who disagree with you…..those who have a different agenda. The more active…..the more dangerous….. that you are, the more opposition you will generate……..and the opposition will become more strident.
A few years ago, in my community, a company opened a store that sold pornography. There was a little grumbling, but not much. A few years later, a ministry opened a museum that taught that the world was created by God in 7 days just as the Bible says. There was an immediate uproar. The Creation Museum was broadly attacked in the media. The opposition tried to fight their zoning change. They objected to tax incentives. They laughed…….hard. Comedians came all of the way from New York City to ridicule the museum. All of this from people who were silent when the pornography shop opened.
So, if you are following………or seeking God, don’t be surprised if you meet resistance. In a way, the fact that you are under attack, means that somebody considers you to be dangerous to their agenda. Somebody sees you as an item on their To-Do list. Somebody considers you to be such a problem that you are worth the trouble of attacking.
Somewhere out there………….is an enemy you can be proud of.