Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Nichole Nordeman singing her song, Finally Free, … declaring how, when we, as Christians, can resist Satan’s lures and walk free from the bondage of our sin nature.
Highlight Passage: 1st Peter 5: 9 [NKJV] …
9 Resist him [SATAN], steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
… We can resist the bait of temptation in Christ.
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Highlight Context – 1st Peter 5: 1-9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Satan pursues us with his tempting lures, stalking us as a lion.
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Reference Passage #1 - James 4: 7 [NKJV] …
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
… We can resist the ploys of Satan by surrendering to the power God has given us in His grace.
Reference Passage #2 - 2 Timothy 2: 1-2, 22 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Walking free and strong in the Lord and teaching others to do the same thing.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, David Egner, relates a personal fishing story to illustrate his devotional entry. Egner writes … I was fishing quietly on the clear, still waters of Piatt Lake, casting next to a lush weed bed. I watched a large smallmouth bass sneak out of the thick vegetation to investigate. He approached the tempting night crawler on the end of my line, stared at it, and backed into the weeds. This happened several times until he spotted the hook. Then he whipped his tail and disappeared into his lair, never to come out again.
Isn’t it so like Satan to throw out his fat, juicy, tempting lures to try and snag us by our sin nature; but like the large-mouth bass in the attached photo, we’re the ones who must take the bait to be caught by our own greed and selfishness. And if we’re like the bass in Egner’s story, seeing the bait as the danger it is, we can simply turn away and swim free in the clear waters of life.
I think the picture is clear enough; don’t you? We, as the Christians Nichole Nordeman sings about in the linked song above, can be free indeed; … but only if we’re willing to surrender to God’s empowering grace in us. Jesus has given us the discerning power to see and resist the lures Satan uses and to resist his attempts to snag us. But the power we have can only be used in our surrender to our Lord.
So, as the Scriptures above teach, my friends, swim free and resist the wiles of the Devil.
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … Help me see Satan’s ploys to tempt me. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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