Christian Living

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Dealing with Satan

For those of us old enough to remember, comedian Flip Wilson was a prominent member of the comedic ensemble that was Rowan and Martian’s Laugh-In. Laugh-In aired from January 1968 to May 1973 and featured Wilson, dressed up as a nun, who’d participate in unseemly situations. At the end of his bit he would stare directly into the camera and utter the infamous line, “The Devil made me do it.”

I didn’t take Satan very serious back then and sometimes I fail to take him serious today, opting to credit sin in my life or a lack of obedience for the negative consequences I experience.

There are two kinds of Christians, those that believe in Satan and those who don’t. Of the former, most don’t often think about Satan and that is a huge mistake.

Often people point to Hitler or the Cambodian leader, Pol Pot, as examples of evil, but many people mistakenly use the word “evil” or believe “evilness” to be a form of mental illness, a social problem, anything but what it really is. What’s worse, many don’t believe that the purveyors of evil are responsible for the evil they create. They no more believe in Satan or resident evil than the Tooth Fairy.

Many don’t believe in God so why would we expect them to believe in Satan. On the other hand, many have no problem believing in God yet don’t believe in Satan. I believe that many people, including many Christians, live in benign world where the prevailing philosophy is the philosophy of self and that evil, or evilness, is not apart of the equation. Many falsely believe that who they are and what they desire is good even when, by Biblical standards, it is not. They believe that who they are and what they desire could never be bad and never, under any circumstance, be considered evil, but often is. People of this notion in the extreme are sociopaths and this condition seems to be more prevalent today, just consider the actions of many young adults. The Godless as well as the God fearing are raising Godless children in record numbers.

I am not a psychologist, but I have seen evil work in my life. It is when I allow myself to become lazy, prideful or ambivalent that I get into trouble. It starts with an unprotected heart. It starts when I allow myself to become tired, depressed or ungrateful. It starts with a failure to recognize sin for what sin is. It starts by embracing anger and being bitter instead of choosing love and being forgiving, that I begin the journey to the “dark side.”

Each of us has our own areas of vulnerability. Each of us has specific situations or thought processes that triggers that vulnerability. Each us must learn to recognize how we give Satan a foothold in our hearts. Each of us must learn to trust in Jesus, the only one who has ever defeated Satan.

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