Only God

Chapter 5 Satan’s Ways There are many ways in which Satan deceives us. Satan tries to keep a child of God from seeking God’s will. He does not want us to recognize that God is the answer to the problem. Of course, as children of God, we know that. But we are still living in this sinful body. Sometimes we can get caught up in the circumstances, and without thinking, we can leave God out of the equation. This can cause us to worry and stress because we don’t know how to fix the problem. We begin to think about what it will take to correct what is going on so things can return to normal. This kind of stress can even keep us from sleeping at night. We are not spending those sleepless nights saying, “Tonight, I think I will be disobedience to God.” I think Satan keeps us in the dark about our disobedience. Satan is very deceitful! We may be unable to sleep because of some problems that we have not given to God. We may still be trying to manage them on our own. We cannot correct it until we recognize that we are sinning against God by not letting Him have control. Satan does not want us to see what the solution is. To step back and ask God to step into our lives takes faith. This can only strengthen our walk with Him. I am still striving for the day when I can give a problem to God, leave it there, and watch God at work. As I walk with Him, this does get easier. As I walk with God and learn more about how to trust Him, my life is more manageable, and that sweet peace is in my life so much more often. Our faith is tested when it is matters of the heart, like a loved one gone astray. Satan also uses unforgiveness to keep distance between God and us. We all have had to deal with this at times in our lives. To be unforgiving is a sin. God said, in Matthew 6:14, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” God said, “… pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44). When God says to do something, and we don’t, it is a sin. He asks us to do some hard things, “…but with God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) Someone once said, “I have tried to forgive him, but you don’t know how deeply he has hurt me. Just about the time I think I have forgiven him, here he comes, and he does something even meaner. It seems it never stops!” She was truly hurt very badly, and it wasn’t just once. Only God could manage this kind of hurt. Please look to God and let him take your pain away; only He can. People can be very mean with their words and how they treat others. Satan uses the pain caused by others to further his cause. He keeps reminding us of what they said about us and how they treated us. Satan needs to keep this pain alive. Because the longer we allow him to keep bringing this up in our minds, the longer we stay in sin by not forgiving. If we can’t get over the hurt, we can’t forgive. One way to know if we have truly forgiven someone is to pray for them. I know this to be true. You cannot sincerely ask God to bless someone with His richest of blessings if you are still angry at them. After being hurt so deeply, we don’t want to see the one who hurt us prosper. That’s human nature or the sinful nature we were born in. I thought for a long time that if you forgave someone, the wrong they had done to you would be as if they had done nothing wrong. This is not true. When we forgive, we obey God’s command. But God is still on the throne, and sin does not go unpunished. Whether it is your sin or mine, we all pay for our sins. “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Proverbs 3:11–12) It was explained to me this way. If a man murders another man and he goes to his family and tells them how sorry he was, and they forgive him, would there be no charges? Yes, there would be charges because there are laws of the land. He broke one of the laws by killing this man, and he must pay the price for it. So, he will be punished by spending time in jail or even being put to death. God also has laws, commandments, or rules to live by. The one that did the offending which caused the hurt will not escape God’s judgment. We must forgive as God said, or we will sin, and then we will have to answer for that! Only God has the authority to decide the punishment.