Have you ever had one of those weeks that you just feel like, wow, I’m glad that week is over? Perhaps it was a week that was laden with temptation, sin, guilt, shame,and worry? Perhaps you did not live up to your own expectations, let alone those of your family, and especially God.
What do you do when you’re riddled with guilt, fear, and shame? Is your life over? Are you now a hideous beast that is beyond redemption? The devil came a knocking, and you let him right on in. So is that it now? Are you now forced to keep serving the prince of darkness, even though he’s bringing you nothing but fear and shame? How did you get TANGLED UP in this situation in the first place?
Let’s first remember, we are on this rock called “earth” where there is LIGHT and DARKNESS. God has a plan for your life, and the devil has a plan to wreck God’s plan. The devil will do whatever he can to pull you off the path and wreck your life. The devil will send people, even supposed “friends” at just a time when you feel the weakest and most vulnerable. Perhaps you’ve been feeling really down on yourself. Perhaps you get very little affirmation from family or friends, and you’re really depressed. It is an actual fact that 1 out of 6 Americans are on some kind of anti-depressant. It is almost a guarantee that the devil will show up at the most vulnerable point in your life with all the wrong answers that will SEEM completely right! The devil will use seemingly friendly and helpful PEOPLE as his “tools”, whether they know it or not. These tools of the blacksmith will provide “answers” to your problems, that will usually come in the form of some type of sin or temptation. Don’t listen to them!
And the spider spins its web….
The devil says😈...”I have just the “drug” for you, that will make all your problems go away”. How about a shot of whiskey, that always works for me. Your wife doesn’t understand you like I do”. Pornography will completely take your mind off of your relationship problems. You need money, you just need to get up to the Casino, and not only will your money problems disappear, but you’ll have fun at the same time. Bored? So and so is having a WILD Party with all the drugs, alcohol, sex that you could ever want! ALL the “cool kids” will be there! The only ones who won’t be there are LOSERS!” Oh, and a “FAN FAVORITE”…”EVERYBODY’S DOING IT”!
You get the picture? These are just a SMALL SAMPLE of the LIES of the devil. The devil will use these people to get God’s people OFF the path. Then, after the devil gets you to “fall”, he will go up before the Courts of God and bring RAILING ACCUSATIONS against you! (Rev. 12: 7-12). Yes, we can think of God as a judge in a court of law. The devil is the prosecuting attorney, but he’s worse than that. He literally sets up the situations that will drag you down, and THEN he will try to nail you on them! This is his job and his delight. God is a Fair and Righteous Judge. If you BELONG to God, if You are one of His Called out Children, then He will ALLOW certain trials to come into your life, always for your benefit. So what the enemy uses for evil, God will turn around and use them for GOOD. If you belong to Jesus Christ, HE is your defense attorney, and the best one in the Business! Actually, Jesus is the ONLY ONE Willing to defend you! Jesus clients ALWAYS have victory BECAUSE JESUS IS VICTORIOUS.
You DON’T want to stand before the JUDGE with your LIST of GOOD WORKS and NO DEFENSE ATTORNEY! That will NOT go well for you! Jesus is the ONLY Defense Attorney! ALL PEOPLE who go up before the Judge WITHOUT a defense attorney WILL BE CONDEMNED! It’s not that they MIGHT BE condemned, or that they COULD BE condemned, it’s a 100% FACT that they WILL BE CONDEMNED because JESUS is the ONLY PLAN for SALVATION! BELIEVE IN JESUS AND PLEAD HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD OVER YOURSELF. ✝️ FORGIVE OTHERS AS GOD FORGAVE YOU.
Even though Jesus has and will continue to forgive His Children, those who BELIEVE in HIS NAME, the “children” will still have to deal with the CONSEQUENCES of their actions. Sin is pleasurable for a short season, but ALWAYS comes with terrible consequences! We saw this with King David and his family woes! We’ll see this with King Solomon very soon when we watch the wisest man in the world take on 1000 wives and concubines and then literally set up shrines and alters to their “gods”, who were nothing more than demons. We will SEE what happened to Israel because they also went off course and began to worship other Gods. Although we may not knowingly bow down to a demon, to baal of the Old Testament, when we BELIEVE the LIES of the enemy RATHER than the TRUTH of JESUS CHRIST, we are in idolatry!
Sin ALWAYS leads to death. 💀 Adultery can lead to divorce, domestic violence, murder, and prison. Drugs lead to jail time, domestic violence, a life of crime and literal death (overdose). People with addiction to pornography often have difficulty retaining normal, healthy relationships. Unforgiveness, anger and hatred is a toxin to the soul. The devil told Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Did God REALLY say that?”…Did He REALLY say that you would die? And you know what, Eve took a bite of that nasty fruit, and she didn’t die….right away! She probably took a bite and thought to herself, WOW, I’m still here! She probably BELIEVED the lies of the devil, and began to think…”I guess he was right, and God was wrong because I’m not dead”…But you know what? The devil is a liar and the father of ALL LIES! (John 8:44) The devil will TWIST and DISTORT things so that what is a lie will SEEM like truth! Sure, Eve didn’t die RIGHT AWAY. The devil CONVENIENTLY left out the time component⌛. Even though Eve didn’t drop dead at the first “bite”, even though it might “take awhile”, God was telling the truth….Eve WOULD eventually DIE because of her actions. The devil ALSO left out the part that shows that because of eating the “forbidden fruit” (temptation), now sin and death has entered the world, along with sin’s HORRIFYING companions “sickness, suffering, misery, pain, loneliness, and shame.
Once we fall into a sin or temptation, the devil will seek to keep us in that spot. He will continue to LIE telling us that God will NEVER want us now. We are DEFILED, we are DISGUSTING, we are UN-REDEEMABLE. He will CONVINCE US that the consequences for our sin is in-fact the PROOF that God has REJECTED us! But the devil is a liar and the father of lies!
The truth is that God’s MERCIES are new every day! (Lamentations 3:22-23) The Truth is that when we wake up the next morning, we can REPENT (means to make a 180 degree TURN and go the other direction). We can ask God for forgiveness, we can turn from our sinful behavior, and we can CHOOSE to BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST. We can choose to BELIEVE that Jesus shed HIS BLOOD on that CROSS for the FORGIVENESS of OUR SINS! God knows if we really BELIEVE in HIS SON! He knows the “real deal” and can tell when we truly repent in our hearts! If we do this, Jesus will give us a NEW HEART💖, and He will help us on our way to sanctification! Jesus’ Blood washes us CLEAN and makes us NEW! To stay CLEAN, we need to AVOID TEMPTATION, put on the mind of Christ and FOLLOW JESUS through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ in us (Colossians 1:27)
