A couple months ago, one Sunday afternoon, Joshua and I went for a walk around our neighborhood, just the two of us. Well, technically, I walked and he stood on his hoverboard thing and just sort of “wheeled” alongside me. Anyway, I asked him about Bible class that morning and he went on a long monologue about Kayla Newcomer’s class, and how she taught about temptation by using a bowl of Starburst candy that the kids weren’t allowed to eat.
It was a very detailed story.
As he talked, he mentioned how, at first, he could only concentrate on the candy and how much he wanted it, but eventually, he started listening to the teacher, and all the things she was having them do, that he forgot all about the candy. The conclusion he came to was that if people would just focus on listening to God and reading their Bible they would be too distracted by “God things” to focus on the temptations of the Devil. In his words: “If you focus on God you won’t even notice you’re being tempted.”
Of course I agreed and reminded him of the words spoken by James…
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…
(James 4:7-8a)
I also told him that the Devil isn’t like God: The Devil doesn’t have unlimited power or unlimited resources. He won’t want to spend his time trying to influence someone that isn’t listening to him. That’s what we need to be: We need to be a people so committed to the Lord that the Devil will see us as a waste of his energy to try and influence.
There’s your goal for the day: Make yourself a waste of the Devil’s time.
~Matthew