Satan Drives us Closer to Christ
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
Whenever Satan attacks us with a sinful thought, let it drive us to Christ for victory. We learn to hate sin because it leads to eternal darkness, while Christ leads us to eternal light. We hate sin because it goes against God, even though the sin can be pleasurable to the flesh, it is still sin, and victory is more pleasurable than yielding to Satan.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:15) Satan knows our weaknesses, and he temps our own desires, but we have the power of God to overcome. Our biggest challenge is our sinful desire verses the Lord’s desire. We pray for the Lord to change our hearts to overcome our sinful desires, and we live for Christ.
Satan hates us because we created in the image of God, and he is seeking to destroy us through our sinful fleshly desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6) If we yield to Satan, it can lead to eternal death in hell, or we can overcome, and have life and peace and Heaven will be our eternal home. Satan tempts us in this short earthly life, with the goal to pull us away from God. That is why many people are own the broad to destruction, because they live for their fleshly desires.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) Sinful temporary fleshly pleasure comes from seeking, money, power, possessions, and sex outside of marriage. Nothing in this world can bring lasting pleasure, joy, or contentment. Only God can feed our soul with continuous blessing such as love, peace, joy, comfort, and contentment, and our life is in our soul and not in our flesh.
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26) Life is in our spirit, and the world cannot bring lasting contentment to our soul, because everything in the world is temporary. Only God can bring lasting contentment to our soul which is better that any thing the world can bring. Satan seeks to have us live by fleshly desires, because he is trying to pull us away form God, and he has succeeded with many people in this world who live for their fleshly desires. Therefore, when tempted for our sinful fleshly desire, let it be a trigger to run to Christ for victory, before our emotion causes us to sin.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) We take captive every sinful thought and call on Christ for divine help to have victory over Satan. Remember we have the divine power of God to overcome. We let Satan’s temptations drive us to Christ for guaranteed victory.
Today whenever Satan tempts you to sin, call on Christ for victory before you are controlled by the emotion. Satan will always use our emotion to try and make us sin.
Prayer: Lord let Satan temptations be a trigger to capture the thought and to immediately call on Christ. In Jesus name, Amen