Are You Too BUSY?

In spiritual warfare, the Commander in Chief of the Christian army is the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can march forth victorious knowing that the battle is the Lord’s (1 Samuel 17:47), and that we are on the winning side (1 Corinthians 15:57; Romans 16:20).

Still, to be effective, we must know our enemy and his strategies. Satan is not God’s equal or even His opposite; as a fallen angel, he is a being who was created by God to have supernatural powers that are limited by God Himself. When he was Lucifer, an angel of light, God endowed him with great beauty, wisdom and talent. But when his sin of pride caused him to rebel against God’s authority and to exalt himself above his Creator, God exiled him from heaven, along with those angels who joined in the rebellion (Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12-15).

God allowed Satan temporary control of the world, its institutions and its governments (Ephesians 6:12). God allows Satan to tempt and attack even His own children, but always for our own ultimate good (Romans 8:28). Satan can do nothing to us that God Himself does not allow (Job 2:6). God turns Satan’s evil weapons into instruments designed for our good, to conform us more to the image of His Son through suffering (Philippians 3:10), to strengthen our faith in Him, to give us compassion and experience to help those going through similar trials (1 Corinthians 10:13), and even to give us greater joy in our mountain top experiences.

We should not be afraid of Satan or his demons, for God’s perfect love for us casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). Even so, we should respect the devil’s power and understand his strategies. Satan may try to intimidate us, but we can prayerfully use the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6: 11-15) to fight him off, just as Jesus did when tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).

As a former angel of light (2 Corinthians 11: 14), Satan may appeal to our sense of beauty, working through the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh (1 John 2:16), just as he did with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:6). He surely will appeal to our pride, trying to convince us that we are self-sufficient and don’t need God. And as the father of all liars (John 8:44), he will distort the truth, which is why we need the discernment to realize that anything added to, taken away from, or changed in God’s Word makes it a lie.

All Satan wants is one little piece of our heart where he can set up shop (Ephesians 4:27). We must resist the devil, and flee from temptations that can harm us (James 4:7; Proverbs 6:27; 1 Corinithians 10:13). If we give in to that bad seed of doubt or fear that undermines our faith, or to that one sin that so easily tempts us (Hebrews 12:1), or to that false teaching that perverts the Gospel ever so slightly (2 Peter 2:1), Satan has established a stronghold. A single virus-infected email can crash your computer. A tiny drop of cyanide in a glass of pure water turns it to poison. Breathing in an anthrax spore can destroy our whole body. It is even more vital that we use the whole armor of God t0 repel Satan’s seemingly innocent intrusions.

When all else fails to neutralize effective, fruitful Christians, Satan tries to keep us BUSY. According to an Irish web designer in Galway, BUSY stands for Being Under Satan’s Yoke. Mature believers who are in God’s will may keep from sinning, at least in their actions. Yet they may all too easily get distracted by things that are not bad, but that keep us from God’s best. God wants us to be productive, but not so busy that we lose our focus on Him and fail to hear His voice. Unlike Satan, Jesus promises us a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light because He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).

Do we want to be like Martha, who loved Jesus but became too burdened with serving to sit at His feet, or do we want the joy and peace her sister Mary experienced by keeping her quiet time with Him her first priority? (Luke 10:38-42)

Time is the one resource that constantly gets depleted and can’t be bought back. When an opportunity passes by to witness to an unsaved soul, to encourage a fellow believer, to minister to someone in need, or to share love and joy with your family, it may never come again. Satan loves to keep us BUSY.

Do we serve on so many committees that we never have time to read God’s Word? Do we spend so much time tracking worldwide news that we don’t pray for missionaries risking their lives around the globe? At church functions, are we so preoccupied with preparing food, or passing handouts, or managing the sign-in, that we ignore those who need a kind word or a loving touch? Do we spend so much time at home cooking, cleaning or paying bills that we don’t notice when our loved ones just want us to spend quality time with them? Satan loves to keep us BUSY.

For those who have turned from their sins and trusted in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only Way, our eternal destiny in Heaven is secure. But how sad it would be to learn of His perfect plan for our lives that we missed because Satan kept us too BUSY.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Copyright 2011 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives