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Who You Gonna Hold Hands With?
Can we walk with God and hold hands with the devil at the same time?
While there are without a doubt people who would answer "YES", I don't figure any of them are reading this. Would we not all answer "NO"? But do we live that way?
It's a hard thing to be sinless. In fact, it's not only hard, it's impossible according to the Bible. But sinning from time to time because the devil gets the best of us isn't the same as walking with him and holding his hand.
We don't always do the right thing. Sometimes, even when we have time to think about it, we don't choose wisely. Sometimes we sin impulsively, in the blink of an eye, with no real time to consider what would be right and what would be wrong. Sometimes we do have time to stop and consider the situation, and there are those moments we intentionally go the way of the devil.
God didn't give us a nature to sin so we can't use that as any excuse, but being human we are prone to sin, usually out of selfishness or conceit. Paul, in Romans said part of his sin problem was covetousness. While we may be waging war within ourselves, we sin because we choose to in response to temptation or in flagrant disregard for the law of Christ.
James 1: 13-15 says, "When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
Paul, in Romans 7:21-23 says, "So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!"
Today, be encouraged to know that everyone struggles with sin, even those people who we see as pillars in the church. Satan doesn't give anybody a pass. We will sin, but what God asks for is a heart that pursues Him, a decision to obey Him, and a devotion to follow Him on a daily basis, all the while telling us that we will still not be free from sin. Finishing out Paul's thought in the paragraph above he says, "Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Earlier in the week, we wrote about the power of Jesus to continually cleanse those of us who are His children, as long as we are walking in the light. Brothers and sisters, we are walking whether we like it or not. Our task is to decide who we are going to hold hands with, Jesus who is the light or Satan who walks in the darkness.
Don't be deceived by man's teachings, one telling us that we don't have to choose either one, we can just be a good person and remain neutral, or the other which more or less says we can have Jesus and live like the devil and be OK in the end. Scripture on the other hand teaches that a rejection of Jesus defaults us to the kingdom of Satan, and that it is impossible to have one foot in the kingdom of Satan, and the other in the Kingdom of God. Who are we going to believe, the word of man, or the Word of God? Who are you going to hold hands with?
