God Gives Success in Fighting Satan (James 4:7)
Someone has quipped that temptations are like stray cats: if you treat one nice, it’ll be back shortly with a whole bunch of its friends. There’s a lot of truth in that old joke. The more we yield to sin, the more enticements to sin we seem to encounter. But the opposite is also true. The more firmly and consistently we resist temptation, the stronger our resolve becomes. Sin becomes less attractive. Holiness becomes more desirable.
It’s worth noting that when Jesus bluntly rejected Satan’s overtures in the wilderness (see Luke 4:1–13), the devil departed in a huff. He didn’t leave for good, and he didn’t give up his diabolical fight. But Satan did get a small taste of his ultimate defeat and humiliation, which is the same thing he gets whenever we tell him to take a hike (see Romans 16:20).
God’s Promise to Me
- If you firmly resist Satan, he will flee from you.
My Prayer to God
O God, my enemy is strong and sinister. But you are stronger. Give me the grace to recognize the attacks of the enemy and the strength to spurn his sinful offers.
Taken from Once a Day Bible Promises
Fifteen Tactics for Joy
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)
How shall we fight for joy?
- Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.
- Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.
- Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.
- Learn the secret of gutsy guilt — how to fight like a justified sinner.
- Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.
- Meditate on the Word of God day and night.
- Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.
- Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.
- Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.
- Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.
- Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.
- Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature.
- Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.
- Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).
- Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.
After God reaffirms the covenant to Abraham, heavenly visitors repeat his promise that Sarah will bear a son, but Sarah cannot believe it.
Punch Line
Read
He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground. . . .
Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”
(Genesis 18:2, 10-15)
Reflect
Abraham eagerly welcomed these visitors, as did Lot (Genesis 19:2). In Abraham’s day, a person’s reputation largely depended on his or her hospitality—the sharing of home and goods. Even strangers were to be treated as highly honored guests. Meeting another’s need for food or shelter was and still is one of the most immediate and practical ways to obey God. It is also a time-honored relationship builder.
These visitors brought specific news about Sarah and a baby boy. Because Sarah was over ninety, she thought the prediction was laughable. But when confronted about her response, she responded, “I didn’t laugh.”
Sarah lied because she was afraid of being discovered. Fear is a common motive for lying. We are afraid that our inner thoughts and emotions will be exposed or our wrongdoings discovered. In response to Sarah’s unbelief (and laughter), God says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The obvious answer is, “Of course not!”
Respond
Nothing is too difficult for God. Make it a habit to insert your specific needs into God’s question. “Is this day in my life too hard for the Lord?” “Is this habit I’m trying to break too hard for him?” “Is the communication problem I’m having too hard for him?” Asking the question this way can remind you that God is personally involved in your life and nudges you to ask for his power to help you.
Streams in the Desert – May 1
God that cannot lie promised (Titus 1:2).
Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.
Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.
–Days of Heaven upon Earth
I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.
Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it,” but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for me.”
Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more closely.
–Phillips Brooks
The Shepherd does not ask of thee
Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him;
And this He meant in saying, ‘Come to me.’
In light or darkness seek to do His will,
And leave the work of faith to Jesus still.