Devotionals

Satan Servant of God

by Jerry Ousley
10/21/22
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Satan – Servant of God

Jerry D. Ousley

            A boy and his dad were hiking one winter day, when they came to a frozen lake.  It was very cold and the ice looked firm, so they decided it would save them some time to walk across it rather than go around it, and so they crossed.  Once they were sure the ice was safe the little boy felt more and more confident and so began to run, jump and play on the ice.  “Don’t get too far away from me,” the dad called out.  But the boy, as do most boys, felt he knew more than his father and returned, “Aw, it will be okay!” And so, he continued.

He was having a grand time sliding and gliding on the ice until his feet hit a high spot in the ice and it caused him to fall flat on his little behind.  It was very cold and it hurt and he began to cry and called out to his dad, “Dad, help me!”  Of course, his father came running to his rescue, picked him up, dusted the ice from his bottom and asked, “Are you okay, son?”  To which the boy replied, “Yes, but can you hold me tight and not let me fall again?”  How we are suddenly educated to the wisdom of our elders when we are found in peril.

            Just like this little boy and his father, so we are with our Heavenly Father.  We love Him and look up to Him but sometimes, when everything is going smoothly and seems couldn’t be better, we let go of God, strike out on our own and before we know it, we find ourselves dusting snow and frost from our behinds.

            The devil wants us to feel over-confident and strike out away from God.  He is just like the fall of the little boy.  He is the tempter who tells us God is just being over-protective and we are okay on our own.  The devil knows that if he can get us thinking like that, that soon we will fall and that is just what he wants us to do.  He desires our failure in order to make us doubt our Heavenly Father.

            However, that is just the moment that God has been waiting for.  That is when we can call out to Him and allow Him to come to our rescue.  In that moment He has actually, made an unwitting devil o become

 His servant.  He has allowed us to be tempted of the devil to bring us to a point when we will take our eyes off ourselves and our over-confidence and cry out “Help me, Lord!”  In that case, the devil has become a servant of God.

            Yes, the devil is evil.  Yes, his purpose is to thwart God’s plan and knowing that he can’t do it directly to God, he chooses to target us.  But when we love the Lord with all our heart and soul, even in our failure – even in our disobedience and outright sin, when we cry out to God, our Lord will come to our rescue.  Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it.  There are times when we feel God is a billion miles away and either can’t hear us or refuses to hear us.  But what we don’t realize is that He hears us the very first time.  However, just like allowing a child to fall and make their own mistakes in order to teach them, God does so to us so that we will come out the better when it is over.

            Some lessons are much harder and more difficulty than others.  Some feel as though there is no way to win and no recovery; we feel we have gone too far.  Just like the prodigal son, who demanded his portion of his father’s inheritance.  He thought he knew better.  He felt he could take what would be his after his father was gone, and use it to become a great success in his own way.  But before long, after his money ran out, his so-called friends weren’t far behind.  They left too.  He eventually found himself feeding hogs just to be able to eat what they ate.

            The Bible says that he came to himself.  He realized that the servants in his father’s house were better dressed, had a place to live and ate much better than he was.  Then it hit him, “I will return to my father and ask if I can just be one of his hired servants.”  Yes, that was it.  That would work.

            But his father had been looking for him.  He knew what would happen and everyday (or so it seems) he watched for his son’s return.  When he finally saw him coming, before the young man could completely reveal his plan, his father put a clean robe on him, and a ring on his finger, and ordered that the fatted calf be prepared for a feast to celebrate the return of his son.

            And so, God uses the devil to teach us, to refine us, to awaken us and make us come to ourselves.  And when we do, He is right there, waiting for us, looking for us, longing for our return.   He will use the devil to get our attention, but then we can run into His arms and say, “hold me close, Father.  Don’t let me fall again.”