“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3
July 1, 2022
None of us like to be deceived. The greatest deceiver in the universe is Satan. He has a bag full of tricks. We know he pulled a fast one on Eve in the Garden. One of his deceptions is to get us to take comfort in our sin, because great men and women of the faith have committed sins. I’m drawing this from Thomas Brooks’ book, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. Satan loves for us to see the sins of men and women of God and at the same time ignore the rest of the story. Satan will hide from us the brokenness of those who have sinned, or the consequences of their sin. King David’s adultery, a man after God’s own heart, wrote the Psalms and brought down Goliath. But his adultery tore his family apart, bringing life-long problems. The pride of Hezekiah, one of Israel’s better kings, is recorded for us. He began needed religious reforms as soon as he became king. But in the time of Israel’s prosperity he sought to impress the Babylonians with his treasure house (Isa. 39:2). He paid a terrible price for this in Babylon’s future looting and burning of Jerusalem. We dare not take comfort in the immorality of a successful pastor or some well-known Christian or the failure of an apostle, like Peter, who denied his Savior. We must not let this lead us to flirt with temptation and the padding of our own sin or the contemplation of such. There are remedies for Satan’s attempts to get in the backdoor of our life. We will look at those, but for now, remember that staying close to God in obedience blocks Satan’s devices. H
A time to pray: “O Lord, my Protector and Guide, keep me alert to the devil’s deceptions.”