An Ever-Present Enemy

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. - Luke 4:13 (NIV)

Luke provides an account of the devil, Satan, Lucifer, the prince of the earth, the fallen angel, completing his attempts to tempt Jesus in the wilderness and departing from Him. James spoke of submitting ourselves to the Lord and having the devil flee from us. The NIV ends Luke 4:13 with "... he left him until an opportune time." He wasn't done with Jesus then.  He's not done with us now.

If his main job is to steal and destroy, he's not even close to being done with us. He wants our joy.  Do we still have children? He wants to steal our joy. Are we still smiling and laughing in spite of the tears and the heartache? He wants our joy. He won't be done until we are left with nothing and no one. He still seeks that opportune time to sneak up and snatch our joy.

Watch out. He's not done.

End the Cycle

... every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 17:6 (NASB)

At some point, we have to end the cycle of our own destruction. We need to see that we cannot simply turn back to our old ways. Once we slip back into our old mode of operation, we begin to slip further and further away from the ways of God. Instead of being Spirit-led people, we become people who live by instinct. We end up moving out of the light and gradually drift into the darkness. Itis attimes like this when we need to pray to God for forgiveness, admitting that we have gone astray from Him, and submit to God's Spirit, accepting the way that He has called us to go. Let today begin your fresh start at staying on course and ending the cycle that has led so many down the road of destruction.

Fired Up or Burnt Out?

"And let us not grow weary while doing good. . ."- Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)

Are you still fired up? Or, are you burnt out for some reason? For those of us who serve the Lord in more than one capacity, it is easy to fall into the temptation of growing weary, feeling worn out by the work. Yet, it is still not a legitimate excuse. Our service is to be conducted out of faith and obedience, but we also should do as Psalm 100:2 says: "Serve the Lord with gladness."

Don't grow weary, get faint or lose heart. Jesus shared that we should always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). The task at hand is to stay focused and continue striving towards what God has for us.

In days like these, you hear a lot of stuff in the news about the new president and his stimulus package as well as the bank bail-outs and foreclosure forgiveness. I believe that the Lord is still at work. Stand firm through the storm. Hold fast to what you know to be true. The money still says it all: In God We Trust.