Sunday was a wonderful day! Though several of our number were gone, we still had 189 present for worship on Sunday morning. We’ve got a great day to look forward to this Sunday. We’ll have one of my favorites gatherings on Sunday, as we’ll be having our monthly first-Sunday night singing. I love it when we get to spend nearly an entire service lifting our hearts and voices up to the Lord. Notice heart comes before voice. God could care less what your voice sounds like, as long as it is a result of the sweet melody coming out of your heart that expresses your devotion to him.
At our morning service last Sunday we discussed how we can keep from being the Lion’s lunch. In our lesson we recalled that the Devil is described as a roaring lion who prowls around looking for Christians to devour. The best way to fight him is to be humble, be alert, and be consistent.
One of the great truths about Satan is that he is an otherworldly power, and it’s hard for us to comprehend how he operates. Paul said that “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6.12, ESV). It can be discouraging to know that you have that kind of an enemy who is constantly shooting “flaming darts” (v. 16) at you. Some might feel overwhelmed and that they don’t have the stamina to resist.
But remember that the power to resist the Devil is not in you, it is the power of Christ. Paul says that it is our faith in Him is the shield that extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one. The power is not in your righteousness, but in his. It’s because of this that every slip can be overcome. With every fall, there is a Hand to provide a help up if we’ll but reach out.
Yes, Satan is real and he does have an otherworldly power, but lets not forget that we’ve been promised that the power of God is “greater than he who is in the world” (I John 4.4, ESV). We’ve also been promised this: “…that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, ESV).
No matter how hard he tries, Satan has already lost. Though he is powerful, the only real power he has over you is the power you give him. Let’s redouble our commitment, so that we remain humble, alert, and committed no matter what Satan throws at us.
