Daily Bible Verses for 9/28/2016

Bible Verse
But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

Reading Notes
The Holy Spirit who dwells in every Christian is stronger than Satan and those demons who follow him. We have to remember the Holy Spirit is God, whereas Satan and those demons who follow him are part of the creation of God. Therefore, they do not posses the attributes of God and are not God’s equal. Moreover, the character of God and the attributes of His nature show us the faithfulness of God to provide us what we need for trials, to keep us secure and for spiritual growth. For those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, no one, not even Satan can undo the security and the salvation we have in Christ. God through Christ has provided us all we need to persevere in our faith. God has first given us what we need to have a relationship with Him and second, to keep that relationship with Him strong and growing. We must, however beware of pride. Pride is a sin,  that causes us to harden our hearts to those around us and the things of God. Pride is often the one place Satan strikes with the most success! This is one of the areas of our heart that is the most vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.

In addition, we have to remember pride is one of the building blocks upon which our sin nature thrives. Because of our pride we can become preoccupied with presenting ourselves as something more than we really are. And Satan will often use the area of pride to attack us directly and often times with great effectiveness. This in turn makes us less effective for the kingdom of God, why? Because pride turns our focus, attention and energy inward on ourselves, instead of outward toward God. Satan will also use our pride to invoke envy and strife against those who love us, especially if they are doing better than we are. Therefore, never forget Satan’s goal is our ultimate destruction and he will use any means possible to destroy our lives and make us useless for the kingdom of God. The only thing Satan likes better than a non-Christian is a Christian who is ineffective and useless for God’s kingdom work. However, because of the Lord’s faithfulness we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and everything we need to remain strong in Christ. That is as long as we rely on the Lord and His strength and not our own pride and abilities. And we do this by submitting daily to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.