Our Enemy

"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8

Christine Caine's devotional today in Living Life Undaunted could have been written by me. It was so amazing because she mostly was talking about God's love. Since I do that regularly, I thought I would remind you about our enemy, the opposite of God. He causes problems. She wrote about him too and I'm going to share several things she said.

You see, we do have an enemy. He was in Heaven, then decided he wanted to be bigger than God. (Ezekiel 28: 14-17 and Isaiah 14:12-15 mention what happened.) This, of course, was a problem, because no one can be bigger than God. Especially not someone He created. So, God had to kick him out of heaven.

He is considered the "ruler" of this earth, but that's not fully what it means. He still has to answer to God. We see in Job where he went to heaven and questioned God about Job. Job 1: 6-12 describes the "heavenly court" presenting themselves before God. God asks where he's been, he says the earth, God asks if he's seen Job. I love how Satan says in verse 10, "You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is!"

What happens in Job shows us a few of things: 1. God protects the people who live with integrity. 2. Satan hates that God protects us. 3. God did not CAUSE that stuff to happen to Job, Satan did. God did ALLOW it though. (Which is also something I talk about regularly.)

Satan likes to use things against us in order to pull us away from God. Caine puts it like this, "The enemy of our souls will daily and relentlessly bombard us with thoughts and feelings of inadequacy, guilt, shame, condemnation, insufficiency, insecurity, fear, doubt, and rejection. He is an accuser constantly trying to make us feel that we have blown it so bad this time that God could not possibly want us back.

Satan wants to undermine our trust in God's unfailing, indescribable, and unending love. If he can do that, he will paralyze us, making us quit and keep us from stepping into the fullness of our purpose and potential. They only thing that can ultimately keep us running our race is the knowledge that God loves us. Once we begin to doubt that, our very foundations are shaken and everything else begins to crumble."

This is what you fight. His accusations. His lies. His constant trying to pull you away from God. You fight by putting on the full armor of God daily. (Ephesians 6:10-18) Praying daily, and reading God's Word daily. Pray for other believers as well, this will help them stay safe and fight when they are in a battle with our enemy.

Tell the devil to leave and get behind you in Jesus name!

One other thing in Caine's devotional that I have to share: "Love is not only what God does, it is who He is. He cannot stop Himself from loving us because God is love. His love far surpasses any earthly love we may have experienced. It is based entirely on His character, NOT our performance."

Satan tries to make us think we have to "perform" or "be perfect" for God to love us. That's simply not true.

Will you fight our enemy with me? Stand up to him and let him know that you aren't having his games. You are a loved child of the Most High King and nothing he can say or do will stop that!

God bless you today and always.