The Devil’s Devices

The Devil’s Devices
Sunday, March 01, 2020
by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

2 Corinthians 2:8–11

Though the devil has brought down many believers through the centuries, it is not because he keeps coming up with new ways to deceive God’s children. Rather, it is that the same ways keep working, and that means that the better we understand how Satan attacks us, the better equipped to resist his temptations we will be.

One of his most effective tools is revealed in the warning Jesus gave to Peter just before he denied the Lord three times. “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). In Bible times wheat was often threshed with a tribulum (from which we get the word tribulation), a heavy board with stones and iron attached to it. Harnessed animals would drag the tribulum across the grain, separating the wheat from the chaff.

That is what Jesus told Peter Satan wanted to do to him, and it is often what the devil does to us. By bringing hardship and pain into our lives, he tries to turn us against God. He lies to us that God does not love us because if He did, bad things wouldn’t happen. He lies to us that we have been forsaken. When Satan drags the tribulum across our lives so that he can sift us, we do not have to yield. We can turn to God instead and cling to faith in Him.

Today's Growth Principle:
The hard times in our lives provide us an opportunity to overcome temptation and trust God more.