Second Lord's Day Sunday In Lent

On this second Lord’s Day Sunday in Lent, we come fully mindful of some enlightening facts about the evil one. We give God thanks for who He is because without His persistence, His perseverance and His undeniable patience, many of us will continue to live deceived lives, dead in folly and arrogance.

I know this to be true of me, for when, now that I see more clearly and more far-reaching, what Satan tried to do to Jesus, when I see how bold and upfront he is with his cunning, I shudder. I see the utter helplessness and hopelessness of my feeble, frail, and broken life, to stand against the wiles of this undefeatable evil. Truly, I tell you, I see how forever impossible it is for me to win, even the tiniest and smallest battles against the deceiver. Now that I have seen and learnt a bit more about him, I throw myself at the feet of Jesus and I ask Him to face the deceiver in any and every temptation, to make me his victim.

How is it with you and the deceiver? Don’t think for a second that he will not try to deceive you in your most feeble moments. Remember! He has no qualms about who you are and in whatsoever state you are in. He does not care how, stressed you are, how disadvantaged you have been, how weary you are, or how grieved and in pain you are. He steals the well and the sick, the weak and the strong, the big and the little, the prince and the pauper. His name is evil. Be not deceived!

It behooves me to pause for a moment to state again, some of our enlightenment, as revealed in last week’s devotions. This is being done for two major reasons.

The first is that in seeing the deceiving nature of Satan, we see the Divine Nature of the Holy Spirit, overpoweringly clear. Think of it this way. You are in your house, full of filth, mess and things which do not please our Heavenly Father. They are hidden from your eyes, so that you live in the house as if it were safe and free from some of the seen evils you see in other houses, at which you turn up your self-righteous noses. You are living in a fool’s paradise and are totally ignorant of what is hidden away in your house. Only when the overwhelming Light of Truth, is shone in your house that many things are revealed and brought to light. You are stunned and you give unceasing thanks to Light for revealing all the hidden evils in your house. It is in each piece or bit of evil you see, that you see the powerfulness of Light to expose the deceits of evil. 

The second major reason, is the response which comes as a result of the first. When the Enlightening Holy Spirit reveals the craftiness and utter deceitfulness of the devil’s tempting, when He enables you to see through all his camouflages and facades, you cannot but bow down in repentance and fear. You immediately surrender all your mind, all your heart, all your soul and all your being to the One Sovereign, Creator God. It’s like this. You have a carpenter in your house whom you have brought to fix one cupboard. He enters and observes with his expert, trained eyes that you have more to be fixed than your one request. He points out to you what he observes and explains it all to you. You become so overwhelmed that you say to him, “I trust you to do what needs to be done, I leave my cupboards up to you.” Unless we see the evil in our lives, unless we see how dastardly wicked and repulsively offensive our thoughts, words and deeds are to Father God, we will never say unconditionally, “I trust You Jesus to do whatever needs to be done in me, however You do it.” It is only through Holy Spirit convicting that we will know Holy Spirit empowering.   

During this week, we will be led to observe more of the Almighty Power of Sovereign Father God, above the mighty power of evil in our midst.