DEVOURED BY THE DEVIL

“Be alert and vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). The devil has one mission: to keep God‘s people from following Jesus, to keep us distracted, to keep her focus off of the Son of God.

Jesus mission is stated several times in the New Testament and in several ways. He came not to be served but to serve Matthew 20:28. Satan‘s mission is to get us to serve him. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost. Satan‘s mission is to seek and destroy those who have been found. We may truthfully say that it is the believer that the devil is concerned with. He already has the unbeliever so there is no need for him to worry with them. The ones he is after are those who follow Christ. He hates Jesus and the last thing in the world he wants is for you to love him. He knows what loving Jesus will do for you and what refusing to love him will do for you to you.

The Bible presents the devil as an actual being, and no one who has any kind of serious faith in God could think of him in any other way. Jesus was not tempted by a force or an influence. He was tempted by a real being. The surest way for you to please the devil and put your soul at risk to be overtaken by him is to simply deny his existence. You are in trouble when you think of him as anything but a powerful being that is much smarter and much more powerful than you.

The devil is a deceiver and a slanderer. You are never more like him than when you lie and when you slander. Find something else to do with your speech than that which pleases Satan rather than God. Do you realize how important every word you say is? Jesus said we will give account for every idle word spoken. I may not understand everything He meant by that but I know that He meant to assure us that our words matter.

Yes, the devil is your enemy. You will only defeat Him by the power of Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil. Satan will defeat and destroy you if you do not fight him and take him seriously. Assurance comes only to those who love and follow Christ. Everyone else is being devoured by the devil.

Dewayne Dunaway