September 25, 2017 NO OPPORTUNITY
Ephesians 4:24 “and do not give the devil an opportunity.”
James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
The devil is often given more credit than he deserves. It is true that Satan has a degree of power and shrewdness that he employs to deceive many, but Satan is not all powerful and God has placed limits on what he can do. (This is not the subject for today, but God is using Satan to further His purposes, and it is in God’s plans that we as believers learn to overcome Satan.) The old saying that “the devil made me do it” may be true for non-believers, but it does not have to be the case for believers. In Christ, we have been made overcomers and we have power over our enemy, the devil; we are no longer subject to his craftiness and deceit. Ephesians, chapter four, gives us practical instructions regarding how we are to live in this present world, and in the midst of these instructions, we find the statement “do not give the devil an opportunity.” We rob the devil of the opportunity to do us harm or cause us to turn from God by choosing to live as unto the Lord. Giving the devil no opportunity, requires that we not only resist him in our mind and our thought processes, it also requires that we actively align our lives, our actions, with the teaching of the scriptures. (James 4:7 tells us to “submit therefore to God”-and it means just that.) When we live in a way that is contrary with the gospel, we then give the devil the opportunity that he is looking for to have his evil influence in our lives. (As said in a previous blog, Satan cares nothing about us personally-his real desire is to thwart the purposes of God as revenge toward God.) Let us know that because we are in Christ, we have the power and the authority to live as unto the Lord, and by doing so, the devil will have no opportunity in our lives. Let us read Ephesians, chapter four and five, and put in practice today what we read!
Ephesians 4:14-15: “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,”
Blessings,
Buddy
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