ARE YOU A VICTIM?

 Victims often times come in all shapes, colors, sizes and ages. There are victims of crimes such as ID theft, robbery,  or are you Satan's victim of trickery, lies, and deceit?  He is a master of tricking his victims into making lies seem like the truth. He works through all sorts of his subjects on earth too in order to get his job done which is to deceive and bring down the Christian and make us fearful and weak.

It stands to reason that weakness and fear don't originate with God. Immoral lifestyles are not from God. Taking the life of innocent pre born baby  is not of God. Anger is not from God. Stealing is not from God. Lying is not from God. So basically things that are good, pure, true and right are from God. When you cave into a lie of Satan, and many "church" people have, then you open yourself up to all sorts of problems. Marriage of two people of the same sex is not from God. The modern world we live in tends to cave into too many issues in society to "tolerate" things. The brother and sister in Christ then is  criminalized, demonized, and victimized by standing up for the truth and the word of God. We are called hateful because we disagree and stand up for the truth.  Who said anything about hating anyone?

In order to not become a victim of Satan it is necessary, yes essential, to read your BIble and study it almost on a daily basis. Satan will keep you busy with other less important things causing you  to try to squeeze out that quiet time you need with the Lord in order to mature in Christ and defeat the enemy.

In the Army, of which I have been a part, you don't just go to battle, but you practice ahead of time by doing emergency deployment readiness exercises so when that time comes you are ready and know what to do. Similarly, we "soldiers" of the Lord need to stay in our training camp in order to defeat the onslaught of attacks daily from Satan.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:15(KJV) to 'study to shew thyself approved a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'  Do you study your Bible or do you just occasionally pick it up and even worse, just allow the minister or priest to soon feed you from it on Sunday?  That is not enough to be prepared for battle with the enemy and ending up being his victim.  A weight lifter can not get strong unless he or she actually goes to the gym and works out with weights. Similarly a Christian can not become "strong in the Lord" if he or she has little knowledge of how to defeat the enemy with the word of God.

You can take authority in the name of Jesus from bad stuff in your life by claiming the word of God but you have to know where to find the scripture verse dealing with certain things. Maybe the Bible seems boring to you and you have no clue where to begin. As I have suggested before, try beginning in the book of John in the New Testament and read parts of it daily. Romans also in the New Testament is another good chapter to give you strength.

Revelation 3:16(NIV) reminds us that 'So because you are lukewarm and not hot or cold I will spit you out of my mouth.' Wow now that is quite a "word picture" wouldn't you say? I do not know about you but lukewarm stuff is not very pleasing. If we take a bath we want the water to be hot. If you order a cup of coffee it is nice if it is steaming. You get the point.

So why not start today and do not become a victim of Satan's tricks, schemes, and lies. He is only out to destroy you.

PRAYER: Lord I thank you that I have a Bible and sometimes neglect to open it up and study it. Other things get in the way and my priorities get messed up. I desire to get to know you better Lord and I will not allow Satan to make excuses why I should not read the word of God daily. In Jesus' name Amen.