Lies the Devil Told Me
John 8:44c “…he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
For quite some time I have wanted to share with you some of the lies that the devil has told me and might have told you before too. This is a subject I did not want to rush into as I wanted to be prepared. He sets traps for us, but if we can examine these traps, then we can start to discern his endgame. Hopefully this series of posts will help us detangle negative thinking and the end results of temptations.
A short review to start is that the devil exists as a bodiless spirit and he is fueled by venomous hatred of God and God’s creation. Why? Because Lucifer, once a heavenly angel, desired in his heart to be higher than God (Isaiah 14:12-14). Overcome with pride and envy, he spurred a rebellion with with many other angels and the Lord God cast them out of heaven for their disobedience (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6). In their exile from glory, their exile from heaven, they seek vengeance on the Creator. As they cannot attack the Lord since this would be futile, then the next strategic thing for them to do is cause as much damage to the Lord’s creation and ruin His relationship with His creation.
The devil and his demons refuse to repent and turn back to the Lord with a contrite heart because they justify themselves in their sin and so seek to cause others to sin. God is holy and pure, despising sins such as pride, envy, greed, dishonesty, etc. So Satan - incapable of ever ruling heaven and incapable of ever being God - has decided to cause as much collateral damage as possible in the world so as to grieve the heart of the Lord. He does this by trying to deceive us, lie to us and tempt us into sin.
He is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). So in this series called “Lies the Devil Told Me” I will write about ways we can use a lie detector on Satan. Let us be wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16) and not be caught unaware of the wiles of the devil. Satan is not one to be afraid of, but one to avoid being deceived by.
One thing to always keep in mind is that we know how the story ends: God has the last word.