If you’re a regular reader, you know my view that God’s got a plan for your life. There is, however, a flip side. If the Bible is true and everything it says is correct, there’s not only a good guy, there’s also a bad guy in this story.
We know God’s all-powerful. We know Satan’s not. So how does Satan fight God? Satan uses us…humans…as both leverage and collateral damage not as a way of fighting or manipulating God, but as a means of hurting Him. Think about it; Satan knows the power of what Christ did on the cross. He knows his days of freedom are numbered, and he’s powerless to change the outcome. The best he can do is harm something God loves. That’s us.
So what does that look like? People across the planet fall into two different “teams.” There are people on God’s team, and there are people who aren’t on God’s team. When we’re born, we’re automatically in that second category (Romans 3:23). Our default status is “people who aren’t on God’s team.” It’s only by making a conscious decision to accept Christ as savior that we switch to God’s team, trading an eternity of separation from God for an eternity in His presence.
Satan, therefore, doesn’t need to win. He just needs to not lose.
Back in the summer of 2020 I wrote what I’d consider to be some of this site’s most insightful content. I thought I’d be done in four entries, but ended up needing a fifth. In light of what was going on in the world at the time you may find more than a few Covid references, but the heart of the content is still good. Think of the first few of these as a shorter version of the Screwtape Letters. Click on a few of them to check them out:
Part Three: Hamstring Christians. There are multiple ways to limit their ministry potential.
Part Four: Christians recognize Satan’s tactics and either shift gears or fight back.
Part Five: Though conflict may come in the form of a person, don’t forget who the real enemy is. Your flesh and blood adversary can still be won for Christ, so don’t develop hatred for them.