Crucify, crucify

Satan’s Best Weapon

We were talking the other day and the Lord planted a tiny little seed in my mind. We were talking about the way even Christians take such offence at certain things. Perhaps that should read that we were talking about the way Christians always seem to take offence at certain things. Whatever happened to forgiveness – seventy time seven times ? Most Christians do not or will not forgive once let alone seven times. That was the seed the Lord planted. As we discussed this He simply said “Why?” then, without waiting for me to work it out, He added, “Perhaps Satan’s best weapon is his finger?”

Well, ol’ lightning brain here worked that out eventually. It is Satan’s “accusing” finger, pointed at us that causes us to take such offence. “They are saying it’s your fault.” Or “Are you going to take that?” is all he needs to say to us. The inner man, our ego, bruised and battered, instantly rises to Satan’s cleverly timed bait, and we are off on a rant about it. “I’m not having that. Who do they think they are telling me it’s my fault.” And so on – and on – and on. It all rises nicely until we actually say something, probably quite offensive, and Satan chalks up another win for the bad guys.

Let me stop you here. We all know what I’m talking about here, so, before you get all mad again at the memory of so many old hurts, let me ask you a little question. Has Jesus not taught you anything about forgiveness? I heard a very wise piece of advice not so long ago. “Whatever others think about you is none of your business. They are the ones who will answer to God for their opinions – not you.”

Just in case you are still in the dark, I am talking about dying to self and living to Him. It’s all about us crucifying our flesh in order to be more like Jesus. When we manage to do this, we no longer take offence. We forgive almost before the offending words are spoken. They may still be hurting words but we decide to forgive before we take offence. We swallow our pride; we take the insult; we forgive our tormentor, and we walk tall with Jesus. When we do this, Satan’s accusing finger becomes nothing more than a bit of childish name-calling.

“Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.” If we stop each day and put on the full armour of God, (Ephesians 6:10-20), then crucifying our own flesh becomes easier. If we decide to ignore Satan’s taunts and forgive as Jesus taught us, then he has nowhere left to go. Finally, we will come to the point where, despite all our human failings, we have crucified self to the extent that Jesus can actually be seen clearly in us.

As someone else wrote, “When Satan comes knocking, we can say, Jesus, will you answer that for me please?” That is when Satan’s power in our lives becomes subject to God’s power in our lives.

Just a thought for you – that’s all.