Monday 4 Feb 2013

Monday Reading: Revelation 20:1-3

Key Verse: Revelation 20:2
2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Devotion:
I don’t get to hear too many people preach from the book of Revelations because of the content therein. Many people do not want to open up the box and let things out because they are in some way scared that they may either frighten people away or that they will not be able to stop people from thinking the worst. One way is to start with these verses so that everyone can see that God has ultimate power even though we stand against an more powerful being than ourselves. The power of Satan should never be underestimated and anyone who stands up and says that they can defeat him has obviously never met him or is on his side anyway…

The Devil is very powerful and will and does bring so much chaos and suffering into the world by deceiving people into thinking that his ways are in some way good or the only way. That is his task, to take away the good from God, or at least to try and do that. He can never take away the good from our God, but he can make it seem like he is because we can be deceived. If we look at magicians and conjurors we see many things which we think are impossible – they are either doing something rather incredible or are deceiving us with sleight of hand. We can be deceived because we can see that in men, so facing someone more powerful than man, we don’t have much hope.

Or do we? Well these verses give us the clue in that Satan is under the ultimate power of God. He cannot do anything without God allowing him to do so. When God says that it is time for him to be deported to the bottomless pit for a while, then that is what is going to happen. Unfortunately we also see that he is to be loosed again for a season. At the moment he is not in that pit so we have to be wary of that and we have to place our trust in God to deliver us from his evil ways.

That is the truth. God is able where we are not. God is in control and we are not. When we allow God to be in control of our own lives then we will see many things happening that may make it seem like we are in control; but never forget that it is only the power of God that can do this, not us. Rely on God. Trust in Him. Believe in Him.

Points to Ponder:
What things do you believe in?

Are you fully trusting in God?