Lord, I must ever be aware of the wiles of Satan. I sometimes forget that he has a “plan of salvation” also. He is great at promising “deliverance” (Hebrews 11:35, KJV). In fact, his deliverance mimics the great deliverance that You promise Your children. In being tempted by Satan, Jesus was promised deliverance from the cross (Matthew 4:9). Many martyrs were promised deliverance from their pains by a simple recantation. All Satan requires for his deliverances is exactly that which God requires: commitment to him.
I must always remember that Satan wants me alive and well on planet earth. What despot, however evil, wants his subjects distressed and unhappy? The usual caricature—that Satan wants us destroyed, mutilated, or distorted—is not true. He wants us to fulfill ourselves and be the happy subjects he wants us to be—but in his way. That is why it is very difficult to convince unsaved worldlings that they are not having a good time. The fact is, they are! Further, it is difficult to get worldlings to exchange their immediate happiness, which Satan gives, for an eventual happiness, which God promises.
The difference between God’s deliverance and Satan’s hinges on a crucial point: Do I live for myself, or for others? Satan says, “Serve me, and I will give you everything you want.” God says, “Serve Me, and I will give you only what is good.” Satan’s philosophy will eventually kill me, for the end of a self-serving soul is death. God’s philosophy will make me eternally alive, for the person who gives his life for others will live forever. Never will God leave me naked before my enemy as long as my face is turned toward Him, and never will He recant His oath that no power of any kind will ever be able to pry me away from Him (Romans 8:35–39).
“What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:10–11).
Daily with the King 