What the Devil is Really After

There is a popular the refrain oft repeated, especially in the Black church, that the devil wants to rob us of our praise. While that maybe true in some instances, that is not what the devil is really after. Jesus said it best when He quoted the prophet Isaiah in Mark 7:6, "these people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from me." You can praise all day Sunday and still leave church as full of hell as you did when you came in.  It's not really about praise. God is definitely praiseworthy, but this is deeper than praise.  Praise can be fabricated, praise can be faked, praise can be duplicated - we have all seen babies in church imitating a grown ups.  Many times what we think is praise is simply an emotional release that is not necessarily guided by the Spirit of God. 

What Satan is really after, is our faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says it as plain as it can be said, without faith it is impossible to please God.  There is a reason Jesus said what He said to Peter in Luke 22:31. He told Peter that the devil demanded permission to sift him (and the rest of the disciples) as wheat. He also said to Peter in verse 32, "but I have prayed for you, so that your faith will not fail..." Sentence structure indicates that Jesus was saying, because I have prayed for you, your faith will not fail.  Jesus knew that once Peter got onto sifter that Satan would be ruthless and relentless.  In the gospels, we only catch a glimpse of the temptation of Christ, but Satan was with Him for 40 days in the wilderness.  That's forty days of listening to Satan lie and tempt Him, all without the benefit of having eaten or drank anything.  Jesus understood how withering the attacks of Satan could be because he endured them.

Fastforward to Peter's epistle, 1 Peter 1:6,7 says "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,,so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."  This is coming from the older, wiser Peter who knew something about faith being tested as he wrote to strengthen Christians that were in various places.  This is the same Peter that denied Jesus three times and then presided over the greatest evangelistic moment in the history of Christianity.  If gold, as precious as it is, must be tested and found to be true...and we were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, which is much more expensive than gold, then it stands to reason that our faith must also be tested and found to be genuine.

Faith in Christ is the only way that we are saved.  Satan is cunning and he knows what to attack.   Faith is the way that we communicate with God.  It is what God requires of us.  If Satan can steal that, we are finished.  Genuine faith is a faith that endures until the end. It is not a Hebrews 6:1-5 faith which crucifies Christ all over again and gives up the blessings of God's eternal grace. Genuine faith is not a 1 John 2:19  faith in which John said " they went out from us, but they were never apart of us..." Genuine faith is a Matthew 24:13, 1 Corinthians 15:2 type of faith where the one who endures to the end shall be saved.

If you are in a situation where your faith in Christ is being tested, speak aloud and remind yourself of how good God has been, what Jesus did for you at Calvary and how far you have progressed in Christ.  Pray this prayer, "Jesus, please intercede for me.  Seal my faith so that I may see you in glory when you return.  In Jesus' name, Amen.  Grace and peace.