Inspirational Article From Joanne Lowe Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web

DON’T FALL INTO THE TRAP

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 5: 8 – 11 King James Version

One of the ways that satan tries to hinder us from serving Jesus is by giving us guilt feelings after we have failed Jesus. I had a situation yesterday where I allowed satan to defeat me for four hours. I lost my temper over a situation and I was really tempted to say some harmful and harsh things. I didn’t say them but any time that I fail Jesus it breaks my heart. It’s okay to be tempted as long as don’t follow through with the temptation and sin. Even Jesus was tempted, but yet without sin.

People set traps and hide them to catch animals when they are hunting. We need to be careful and always on our guard because satan is hunting for Christians who are weak and haven’t learned to trust Jesus in all situations. Every day he sets hidden traps for us to fall into so that we will become discouraged. Have you ever thought “Everything is going right for a change and I don’t have any crisis that I have to deal with now”? Then all of a sudden, without any warning someone will hurl a poisonous dart of criticism and sarcasm straight into your heart and once again your heart is broken and for a little while you might doubt if it’s worthwhile to keep fighting what seems to be an endless battle. This is how satan works and we should never forget that he is sneaky.

We can’t withstand satan on our own. We don’t have the power; we are powerless against his treacherous attacks. It takes the power of our victorious risen Saviour to bring us up out of the valleys of heartache, loneliness, discouragement, doubts and fears and put us once again on the mountaintops of joy, peace and happiness. Jesus not only takes the fears, loneliness, discouragement and heartaches from us, He replaces them with His compassion, understanding, mercy, grace and tenderness.

Don’t allow satan to keep you discouraged. When Jesus died for us on the cross, He defeated satan. We will still have daily battles but the war has already been won. As one person said in a testimony when he was talking about what he had read in the Bible “I’ve read the end of the book and we win”. You too can be victorious if you have the power of the risen Saviour on your side.

Run to Jesus immediately when satan first attacks you. Don’t wait and don’t try to do it on your own because you will lose every time just like I did yesterday. Instead of immediately going to Jesus, I tried to overcome the attacks of satan yesterday on my own. It didn’t work and it will never work. The tragic and heartbreaking thing is that sometimes satan will attack us through our families and friends and that is when it really hurts. Thank God that we have a Saviour who cares when we are hurting!

Joanne Lowe

June 7, 2007

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