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“Don't Open The Door To The Devil”
Categories: Daily Living, Satan, TemptationDon’t Open The Door To The Devil
Jarrod Jacobs
It has been said, “If you don’t open the door to the devil, he goes away.” Truly, the only way for the devil to have an effect upon your life is for you to open to door to him. Satan, “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:8). Why is it that he can “devour” some and not others? It is because some resist the devil, while others do not (Jas. 4:7).
This begs the question: “To what extent are we resisting the devil?” Paul warned to “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14). It is a sad fact that some, while saying they are resisting the devil, will make “provisions” for doing the very thing they protest! Do we merely resist Satan when it is something we don’t want to do anyway? Please remember that sin has its pleasures (Heb. 11:24-25). Yet, they are temporary. Therefore, the sins we find “pleasurable” will be harder to resist. (This is not to say that all pleasure is sinful, merely that sin can be pleasurable.) John said, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (I Jn. 2:17). Are we doing our best to resist Satan at all times, or are we merely resisting when we feel like it? Paul said, “We are not ignorant of (Satan’s) devices” (II Cor. 2:11). Let us understand that Satan uses such things as envy, lies, lusts, greed, and pride to lead us away from God. We each are responsible for our actions (Col. 3:25), and we each allow Satan into our lives by choice. Will we succumb to his devices, or will we resist him so that he will flee from us (Jas. 4:7)? Choose wisely.
