Scripture: Revelation 12:9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Devotional: The antichrist is great at deception. In fact, Scripture calls Satan the father of lies. As a reminder, the antichrist’s goal is to get you to worship anything but Jesus. And deception is one of the tools that he uses to do so. What does this look like in our world?
Well, as a general rule, we are pretty self-centered people. We prioritize our “truth”, our feelings, and our desires. Why is that? Because the world tells us that we cannot love other people well if we do not truly love ourselves first. So, we pursue self-love before loving others. We get so caught up in discovering who exactly we are, what we like, and what makes us tick. We believe that doing so is necessary before we truly have good friendships and relationships with other people. What a lie that is.
Satan also does his utmost to make evil appear good. He makes alcohol intoxication look like fun. He makes sexual immorality look pleasurable. He makes fame and popularity desirable. He has glorified each of these things while using society to numb us to the consequences of them.
It is time we wake up! We need to see the evil things in this life for what they are: evil. We need to be able to see through the enemy’s schemes. We cannot let him charm us into sin, all the while making it appear okay. Instead, we need to pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit and His guidance. Without that, it will be easy to fall into the traps of deception that the antichrist has set for us.
Reflect:
- What are some things that you have been tempted by?
- Are they things that this world has said are good when they are actually evil?