The Devil Went Down to GA

Opening Prayer

Gracious God, remind us daily that we are at war and there is an enemy. Equip for spiritual warfare.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday: John 17:1-5

Tuesday: John 17:6-9

Wednesday: John 17:10-12

Thursday: John 1713-19:

Friday: John 17:20-23

Saturday: John 17:24-26

Reading

Before you fight a war, it’s always a good thing to know something about your enemy. Nowhere is this statement truer than in the spiritual realm.

Many Christians do not take the enemy seriously because they don’t know enough about him to take him seriously.

In fact, Satan’s cleverest strategy is to make us believe that he does not exist or that he’s not a real threat.

Some Christians do not even believe in a literal devil. Instead, they believe he is a biblical symbol for evil. But that is not the position of the Bible. The devil is every bit as real as God is. It’s hard for a symbol to do the things attributed to Satan in Scripture: deceiving, murdering, tempting, destroying, lying, accusing, and controlling.

The devil’s disguises are very clever, and he hides in the most unbelievable places. One of his favorite hideouts is religion. He also hides behind intellectualism. He hides in poetry and art and oftentimes in music. He hides in psychology and human understanding. Satan can even use the subtle method of Scripture taken out of context to deceive. When people take verses out of context and use them to prove something they were not intended to prove, those people are falling right into Satan’s trap.

Satan never tempts us to believe blatant error: that would be too easily discerned.

Satan is subtle, and that is why we as the people of God must stay alert.

• David Jeremiah