Give It Up

The work of the enemy is to try to get us to trade good things for lesser ones,  solid things for feeble ones, truth for lies.  He’s really good at it.

He didn’t win his own battle with God, so his great work is to chip away at our own destiny by persuading us to embrace the substitutes instead of God Himself and all He has for us. 

He succeeded with Eve and Adam by challenging their memory and understanding.  “Did God really say…?”

He tried it with Jesus at the end of 40 days when the Son of God should have been weakened by the lengthy fast, but it became very clear that He had not just given up food for almost seven weeks, He had chosen something more nutritional and feasted on truth.  For when the devil arrives, Jesus is not tricked.

Satan tried to get Him to trade in dependency on God for self-satisfaction.  He wouldn't do it.

Satan attempted to push that very position then by having Him do an experiment to prove God’s care, but Jesus wasn’t seduced to create a situation of His own making. 

Satan then tried to get the Son of God to worship him in exchange, he said, for the world.

Jesus had given Himself to leaning into truth, to standing on truth, and no matter how enticing Satan’s offer could have been, He wasn’t buying the lie that the substitution would be to His advantage.

The enemy wants us to trade in the good stuff for things he drapes with thin veneers of immediate gratification, with “just this once won’t hurt” tales, with dozens of varieties of excuses and reasons why going that way or doing that thing won’t matter.  It’s a lie. 

Once we’ve bitten the worm on his hidden hook, he begins to reel us in with pride (I can conquer this), with shame (I don’t want anyone to know I was duped), and justification (“I won’t let this do much damage”, or the popular “I’ll start dealing with this tomorrow.”)  Meanwhile, we’ve just traded in one more day of a better life and we start to be insulated from truth as we keep adding bricks to our wall of defense and the hope that we can take care of the issue by ourselves, when the increasing wall only lessens our ability to see clearly.

We substitute food instead of hungering of things we won’t persevere for.  We substitute porn for the patience to wait for a good relationship and the investment in a healthy one.  We substitute a myriad of other things for the better, more valuable, and truly satisfying ones.  We’ve all done it to one degree or another.  We trade in treasures for Satan’s stupid gag gifts.  We’ve been duped.

There is something built in to the very word substitute that should help us get a better handle on this.  Sub means under/beneath/lower.  –Stitu, statu, and statuere have to do with position.  A substitute is typically putting something “less than” in the position of the more beneficial thing. 

Satan is the master of bad trades.  Don’t let him seduce you into giving up the best that God has given you for thin plastic knock-offs while he dances off with your soul.  He loves to take our good inheritance and run off with it.  He will happily grab your crown and sit you there wearing a dunce hat.  He will steal, kill, and destroy you if you allow him to.  Today, start asking the loving Father to restore you.  Ask Him for wisdom and strength to start saying no to the one who will ruin you and to take hold of the truth that God is endlessly faithful, eternally good, and powerful beyond measure to reestablish your life.  It's His specialty and His greatest desire.

God did what it would take for you by making the greatest exchange of all to cancel the power of Satan's work, His Son's life to have you.  He will not stop working on your behalf for your victory and His joy.