Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Devil's Second Greatest Trick

In The Usual Suspects Roger Kint said "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist". I believe this is absolutely true. I think the devil is constantly pulling tricks on us without us ever realizing it because he has convinced the world he doesn't even exist. After he convinced us that he didn't even exist, his second greatest trick was trying to convince us that could never be good enough, that God could never forgive us, and that we don't matter.

The devil is constantly trying to tear us down. And that is why we must flood our lives with messages that tell us we are good enough, we are forgiven, and we do matter. The best place for us to find messages like that is the Bible.

In the Bible, we are constantly given reminders that we matter and we are loved.  In Psalm 139:13-14 it says "for you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." God knows us because He made us. Not only did He create us and gave us life, but He also gave us the opportunity to know Him intimately and have the chance to spend eternity with Him. God wouldn't do that for someone He didn't love and value. Matthew says in Matthew 6:26 "look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?". God cares for every being on Earth, even the birds in the sky. When we flood our lives with messages like this the devil doesn't have as strong a hold on us.

Inadvertently, the Bible also shows us that we are good enough. God chose to do some of His greatest works through some of the unlikely and unqualified people. Rahab was a prostitute yet God used her. Even after David had an affair with a married woman God still used him. Jonah ran from God but God never gave up on Him. Paul was once Saul and in his early days he killed Christians but God still used him. By simply picking up the Bible, one quickly encounters imperfect people being used by a perfect God. God uses everyone because everyone is good enough for God.

One of the greatest ways the devil tries to grab hold of us is to condemn us when we sin. He tries to convince us that God could not love us after what we did and when the devil has us in his vice grip of condemnation we are incapacitated. We cannot do what God has called us to, which is exactly what the devil wants. This is exactly why we must hold on to God's truth. In this life, we will make mistakes but God forgives us. In Isaiah 43:25 God said“I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins”. His love is over and underneath us. We could never be so good that we don't need Him but we could never do anything so bad that He would turn away from us. Mike Donehey from Tenth Avenue North says "we’re all so bad that Jesus had to die for us and that humbles us, but at the same time we’re so loved that He was glad to die for us... He went higher than the highest and lower than the lowest bearing our sins on the cross, so that gives us great hope in our fears of whether or not we can be loved".

If we live our lives knowing and accepting that Christ died for us then we have got a hold over the devil. If we bask in the love of God and know that He says we matter, we are good enough, and we are forgiven then we can fight the devil and evade his tricks.

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