How Jesus and the Devil Are Alike, Part III

My third parallel can be derived from the previous post—but you need not know Calculus to find it: only have wit. Since we are dealing with individuals here, and since both Jesus and the Devil desire your soul, but are unable to coerce you into their power, they each must give you personal attention in hopes of achieving their goal. Again, the types of personal attention are vastly different. Your type of interaction with the spiritual realm largely depends on your personal choice, as I will explain later.

Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for this interaction:

{ Serve God = good attention
Serve Satan = bad attention

Reality is much more complex than this. To those serving Satan, life can go pretty smoothly. So long as the Devil is able to keep them distracted with earthly pleasures and ignorant of the awesome blessings of God, the job is done. There’s no need to stir up trouble and jeopardize his control. Satan keeps his demons back at a safe distance and tries to keep trials small and to a minimum.

Pretty simple, huh? Well, for the Christian, things are a bit more complex. We’ve already let God have our souls and opened the door to His blessings and protection. Since God is not restrained to this day and time of Tuesday, June 20, 2006, at 7:55:24, He can spend every single second of our lives walking beside us. He gives us more than personal attention—He gives us His all. We need only to make the effort to take it. When we’re tired and weary, we need only to reach out and take the food and drink He is offering. When we are hurting, we need only to sit down and let Him apply the salve. When we are under attack, we need only duck under the shadow of His mighty wings.

That’s all nice and good, but there is another spiritual being who also gives personal attention, whether we want it or not. Satan is still smarting over the loss of your soul and now hates you too, because you have joined the Enemy. Now he will do everything within his power to make your life miserable. He will give you all the time necessary to lure you away from the straight and narrow path, to turn your eyes away from the Saviour, to convince you that He’s abandon you. Once he gets you going on your own, he’ll abandon you, moving on to someone else and returning only when you start drifting back toward the Good Shepherd. The devil will take as much time as he needs to make your life seem to shrivel and feel worthless; then he’ll dump you.

But again, there is a personal, loving God to balance out this equation. God cannot follow you every time you take a bunny trail off His path. But He can—and will—come and find you and lift you on His shoulders and take you back if you will only call out to Him. There is nowhere you can go—no distance you can travel—that is out of earshot and reach of God. All it takes is faith. Faith that He is powerful (Psalm 29:4). Faith that He hears you when you cry (Psalm 65:2). Faith that He will come and rescue you (Psalm 6:4).

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.” ~ Leviticus 26:12, NKJV