Episode #74 Don't do Satan's work

Speaker A: 00:00:03

Welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of Road Advise from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every Tuesday and Thursday for about 10 minutes.

And if you'd like more in depth information on walking with Jesus, you can find that at my www.bible805.com website. For now, let's get started on our topic for today, which is

Episode number 74, Don't do Satan's work!

We have two verses here.

The first one is from First Peter, where it says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

And then the second one comes from Revelation 12 where it says, "And I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, night."

Now, with these verses in mind, here's how we can do Satan's work.

It starts when I become astounded at the absolutely dreadful things that can come into my mind about my brothers and sisters in the faith or in my family over all sorts of imagined slights and hurts. And whenever that happens, sometimes it does stay in my mind, but it comes out of my mouth. I am becoming an accuser of the brethren.

When this happens to you, as it does to me, I have to remind myself to stop. I remind myself Satan is the accuser of the brethren and he will put those thoughts into my mind continuously. He's the accuser.

I must not do his job for him. His goal is to devour my love for others in a pity party of slander and resentment. This is no small thing.

We are involved in spiritual warfare for the souls of people.

And if Satan can cause us in our families and in our churches to be picking at, arguing with or fighting each other, it cripples us for our battles with a real enemy. Maybe someone made a cruel remark in the church lobby when I was attempting to be vulnerable after a moving, challenging sermon.

What they said hurt deep. Now, how should I respond? I must remind myself that maybe the other person didn't mean what they said.

Perhaps they were tired or stressed or upset about something I didn't even know that they were dealing with.

I must also remind myself that there are sinners like me, and maybe they precisely meant what they said, and perhaps they deliberately wanted to hurt me. Either way, my response should be the mercy. Forgiveness.

Now let's go a little bit deeper on these sorts of interactions, remembering that our Lord is in control of life and allows all that happens to us to happen. Because now there's a theological sort of parenthesis here.

But an important point I said allows not that he causes the enemy sometimes initiates really difficult things, perhaps even horrible things, as he did with Job, but even the most difficult must go through God before He allows them to happen, before they reach us. And all that does reach us will ultimately be for our good in this world or the next. However, let's get back to the here and now.

Perhaps something quite dreadful or maybe even longer duration happened between you and a friend or perhaps a family member.

Not something like a physical attack, but perhaps something like you were going through something difficult and they weren't there for you, or they didn't do what you thought they were supposed to do, or whatever. Something maybe that's lasting over a period of time. You're deeply hurt. You attempt to have a meaningful, clear the air talk with them.

They say the right words but nothing changes. How do you deal with that?

Well, there are many wise psychological options and I can't speak for those, but I can offer some suggestions based on what I see in the Bible. This is not going to be easy to hear, but Bear with me.

We need to remember Jesus words when he said, if you love anyone more than me, you aren't worthy of me. Now again, bear with me.

Jesus does say in many places where to love our families, and His Word reminds us of the importance of taking care of families. If we don't, we're worse than infidels.

As the Apostle Paul says in First Timothy 5, 8 or the way the message translation puts it, anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That's worse than refusing to believe in the first place. We are to care for and love our families.

But I think the verse that started this discussion about needing to love Jesus most of all is that we put our love for families in a proper place for friends. Also that we always love the Lord more and grant grace and mercy to family and friends that disappoint us.

We need to also remember that Paul says in Philippians 4:19 My God will supply all your needs, not family or friends, or even a spouse or those closest to us. And those needs include emotional ones.

It is so good and freeing when we put our emotions in the hand of the Lord and when we don't expect things from people that they possibly can't ever give us. St. Augustine said, Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

We often use that quote in an ultimately spiritually challenging way, but I think it applies in more everyday situations also. Our hearts are restless until they rest in the Lord.

And even if our expectation is not unreasonable, if they could have or should have done something, but they're not going to do it, we need to rest in the Lord. We can pray for them. They are accountable to Jesus, but that's between them and Jesus.

And it is my job, even if the offense is unacknowledged, to grant forgiveness and mercy. I expect that kind of mercy and forgiveness from the Lord, and the Lord wants me to reflect him in that with others.

I can't forget how I act sometimes. Sometimes I'm rotten to people because I'm stressed out and sad.

Sometimes I'm horrid and sinful because I want to intentionally make somebody look bad and show the world what a sneaky hypocrite they are. When I see myself in these dreadful actions, I plead with the Lord for forgiveness. He promises to grant it, but again with one little condition.

Again, I must forgive people who, intentionally or not, have mistreated me. I need to forgive in the free and grace filled way the Lord forgives me.

I must trust that they are the Lord's servants, not mine, and he will deal with them as is necessary. I don't have to say unkind woe is me. Isn't that awful? Aren't they bad? All those sorts of things about people.

I don't have to be tempted to take on Satan's job and accuse my brothers and sisters in Jesus for not doing things that only Jesus can do.

When I do that, I can live in freedom, remembering that we're all pilgrims, still a long way from home, and the journey's much more pleasant when we're kind to each other on the way.

That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com for now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.

May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hobo soul, no more a transient wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.