The devil buffets me.
If you saw my personal life right now, you’d know it to be true. I’ve had a fairly challenging life, but the last six years have been absolutely awful in terms of hardships.
Now don’t get me wrong. In the midst of my troubles, God has provided for me, kept me safe, and comforted me. For these things I’m grateful. But in the process of the last six years, I’ve definitely been on the anvil and the potter’s wheel. I’m being refined and made stronger. I’m almost afraid to see how strong I am on the other side of all these things. Why is He toughening me up? Or am I only being refined? Am I proud and He needs to take me down a peg or two? Time will tell and it’s not for me to know.
It’s for me to trust. So I am.
Recently, the night before Mother’s Day, my life had actually been going quite well, and I had even praised God for the restoration of some things in my family.
BOOM, on Mother’s Day, life kicked me in the gut again and knocked me down so hard I literally could not breathe.
Therefore, I’ve decided, if the devil is going to fight that hard to stop me from speaking out, I’m not going to let him win. If I’m going to be buffeted, then he’s getting some pay back.
What’s all this devil talk, you ask?
I believe there’s a devil and I also believe there’s a God. I believe like a child, just as Jesus told me to. You might call me nuts, but that’s okay. I know with every fiber of my being that God created me and is up to something good on my behalf.
But as much as I know that God loves me, I know that the devil hates me.
Make no mistake. There’s no way the devil is nearly as powerful as God. Lucifer wants us to think so, but he’s not. In fact, the Bible (which is my authority on all matters) tells us that when we see him, we’ll not be too impressed:
12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground—mighty though you were against the nations of the world. 13 For you said to yourself, “I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the highest throne. I will preside on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north. 14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.” 15 But instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest depths. 16 Everyone there will stare at you and ask, “Can this be the one who shook the earth and the kingdoms of the world? 17 Can this be the one who destroyed the world and made it into a shambles, who demolished its greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?” Isaiah 14:12-17, TLB
The thing that gets me through this life, and frankly, always has, is the knowledge that this isn’t all there is.
All the things around me, all the events, all the troubles, the stuff–it’s all temporary. I don’t think of life on earth as the end all and be all of my existence because that’s not how the Bible has taught me to think. The only thing that last forever, when it comes to this world, are souls. People. People last forever.
People are the most precious of all creation to God. And it’s because of this that the devil fights us so hard. He is insanely jealous of us. From the beginning of time he’s done everything he can to mess things up when it comes to how we think and believe. Because we are precious to God, the evil one fights in arenas of sickness, mental illness, abortion, sexual perversion, broken homes, false doctrines (beliefs) and more.
His first goal regarding his hatred of humans was to stop the lineage of Jesus Christ because he knew that Jesus would die for us and redeem us. Satan can’t be redeemed. So he wants to drag us all to hell with him.
Now that Jesus has come and paid the price for us, the devil does all he can to make sure that humans do not reign with Christ forever. Because of this, the gates of hell are opening as never before and evil fury is unleashed upon the world. But we aren’t without hope. Because God’s Word tells us that the “gates of hell will not prevail” against us (Matthew 16).
In future posts, I’m going to be writing more about supernatural answers to earthly questions. I’m not going to let the enemy stop what God has called me to do.
Don’t you let him, either.
Comments 4
Great post! Keep fighting. And thank God this isn’t all there is!
Author
Amen, Tom. It would be awful if this is all there is!
We are definitely in the midst of a battle. Will be praying for you as you fight yours.
Author
Thanks, Ann. We’re all fighting the good fight as Christians. We must keep our eyes open so we’re not deceived. There’s great deception in this world right now. Thanks for reading and commenting!