I had a conversation with a friend tonight, and it reminded me, as I should always be reminded, that the devil doesn’t come with a neon sign, flashing: “i’m the devil, beware! Watch out. I’m here to ruin your day!” Nope. He’s crafty, smooth, friendly, appealing . . . He talks a great game, and he’ll do anything, say anything, be anything to win. He attacks in ways that we’re never looking for, and has an uncanny ability to use our insecurities, or our over-securities to attack. So the defense then becomes the prayer that the Spirit would constantly be revealing the evil one to us, no matter where he’s lurking.
When my first child was born, he was whisked out of our arms, in a flurry of doctors and nurses, across the street to the children’s hospital, where he spent a week in the NICU – seen by infectious disease doctors, hemotologists, neurologists, cardiologists . . . If there was an “ist” Dr in the joint, he came by to see my son. No one knew what was wrong with him. I started playing 10 rounds/hour of the “what if” game. What if he does this, or doesn’t do this, or we can’t do this, or we have to do this . . . God revealed to us that the “what if” statement in our lives became the precursor to a road we didn’t want to travel – doubt placed by the devil to distract us from the love God has for us, no matter what form it may take . . . So tonight I’m appreciating the reminder that the Spirit works overtime in my life, revealing the evil one to me, and protecting me from the “what if’s” in my life.
