A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day (May 26, 2017)
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)
Have you ever met a con man or con woman? Well, I have. These unique individuals have the ability to make you buy something you don’t want or need. Sometimes you don’t even get it after you pay for it. When Loretta and I were first married, we didn’t have much money. We were in college and we had a good, late model car we had bought from Loretta’s father. We didn’t drive it though. It sat in our driveway with two flat tires. We couldn’t afford used tires for the car. It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but once we looked through the couch and found nine cents. We walked two blocks to the grocery store and bought some instant biscuits. We ate biscuits that day. We already had some butter in the refrigerator, but that was all!
Now, I’ve told you this to illustrate how poor Loretta and I were during our early years of marriage. Yet as destitute as we were, a vacuum cleaner salesman still sold us a brand-new vacuum cleaner along with all the attachments — even though we didn’t even have carpet at the time. When that salesman first approached about the vacuum cleaner, my initial reaction was, “We don’t need one.” But after much persistence on his part, I gave in to “just listen” to the pitch. After listening for a while and not being prepared for all his logic, I gave in and agreed to the purchase, partially because I just wanted to get rid of him and get it over with.
It may have been a good vacuum, but we didn’t need it and couldn’t afford it. The result was we had even less money and one more obligation we couldn’t meet.
Satan is the salesman of destruction in your life. He peddles his lies and tries to get us to buy them. We know we don’t need his lies. We know we can’t afford his lies, but he is a persistent salesman. He has done this before. He knows that if he can just get us to listen, he has a chance. Listening is the first step in being sold. If we as Christians wouldn’t listen to the lies of Satan, then we would not buy his lies. We need to guard our minds and our ears.
Satan is deceptive and he wants to destroy Christians. He wants us to be ineffective, powerless, and defeated. He knows that one Spirit-filled Christian, walking in faith, has the power to move mountains and deal a severe blow to his kingdom. He knows that faith is the key. He knows his only hope is to destroy faith. And here’s how he does it.
He knocks on the door of our minds with his briefcase full of lies and he tries to get us to buy them. He keeps talking until we listen and then he goes for the close. One of his lies is, “God does not heal today.” Or he’ll tell us this lie, “the gifts of the Holy Spirit passed away with the apostles.” Another lie he tries to sell is, “God has a purpose for you to be sick. He put this sickness on you to teach you something.”
If we buy Satan’s lies, it will destroy our faith. Without faith we will not please God (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith we will be ineffective as Christians and powerless to withstand Satan. So resist the “salesman of lies” with the truths of God’s Word and he will flee (James 4:7). Remember, the Word says that it is our shield of faith that withstands the attacks of Satan (Ephesians 6:16).
